Posted 9 months ago
Agram.m
(288 items)
Although I for myself prefer micro mosaic jewelry (see my latest fine example of the Godess of Bacchus), Pietra Dura which is this brooch is also an example of high skilled crafsmanship and a lot of patience of the maker. It's like micro mosaic, a work of precision. This is quite a large brooch white flower brooch set in vermeil (gold plate over silver) in a black Onyx background. Measurement: 5,5 x 4.5 cm (2.2 x 1.8").
I could imagine that it belongs also to mourning jewelry because of the rather sober muted colors don't you think so?
If These Shirts Could Talk: The Tantalizing Tales Behind Used Clothes
Jockeying for Position: How Boxers and Briefs Got Into Men's Pants
Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes
In the Hot Seat: Is Your Antique Windsor a Fake?
Love at First Kite: How Pizza and Pente Led to One Oklahoman's High-Flying Obsession
Blood, Sweat, and Steel: My Afternoon with the Ace of Swords
'The Great Gatsby' Still Gets Flappers Wrong
Say Ahhh: An Oral Surgeon's Quest to Reimagine the Garage-Band Guitar
Forget TV Pickers, Meet the Real Mavericks of the Antiques World
Coveting The Craziest Cat-People Collectibles


I was thinking mourning too...
On the topic of 'pietra dura' I've just been looking around about deans paperweight and found this site on the English version: "Ashford Black Marble ".
http://www.tideswel.demon.co.uk/abm/ashford.htm
Thanks AmberRose and vetrai050 for your helpful comment!
The English loved black after the death of Queen Victoria's husband, the Prince Albert. Mourning went on for forty years! He died on December 14, 1861 and she in January 22, 1901. Such a black period.
I've also noticed that the Italians are copying the Ashford Black Marble these days in Florence.
thanks again vetrai050, it's a pifty that copying is less of quality due to the costs, so loving old pieces is always more interesting. Nice ro hear so much knowledge!
I was researching an intaglio paperweight by Menegatti:
http://www.departures.com/articles/other-side-of-the-arno
and this video is great too:
http://vimeo.com/40265135
mustangtony thanks a lot for loving so much of my jewels!
I have to say thank you for all of the wonderful pieces you've shared this year!
Season's Greetings to you and yours, Agram.m!
vetrai050 thank you for your kind words all the same to you and i hope we meet a lot of times here at CW in 2013.
Beautiful!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!
Bratjdd thanks for loving and your wishes. Season's greetings for you and all you love!