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Home / Antique / 19th century Victorian era antique round pique brooch

19th century Victorian era antique round pique brooch

Pique jewellery is a style and material that is unlike anything else, and here is a very lovely 19th century Victorian era antique round pique brooch.

With a wonderful chocolate brown colour and highlighted with the most wonderful and intricate inlay of gold and silver, this pique brooch is in superb condition even after 140 years.

Measuring 40mm in diameter, the beautiful colours and design of this brooch will certainly make it stand out no matter the colour of outfit that it is being worn on. Day or night, this is one brooch that will simply always fit right in.

Antique pique jewellery is unlike any other and has a wonderful tactile feel to it and this one will no doubt always be admired every time that it is worn.

 

Stock#ET222

Circa: 1870

$Sold.

SKU: ET222 Categories: , Tag:
Availability: 

Out of stock

Description

19th century Victorian era antique round pique brooch

A brief history on pique jewellery:

Pique jewellery is a style and type of jewellery all unto itself and one that cannot be reproduced today and is so unique and spectacular.

Made most popular during the Victorian era, it can be found as far back as the 18th Century and was popular throughout most parts of Europe but mostly in Italy and England.

Pique (pronounced pee-kay) is gold or silver  or sometimes a combination of both, inlayed into another material.

Quite often the material was tortoiseshell (from the Hawksbill tortoise which was also used for the making of other tortoiseshell material such as boxes etc) and sometimes even from elephant ivory.

The tortoiseshell seemed to be the most popular, probably because of its light weight and being easy to mould into other shapes.

Tortoiseshell is a natural thermoplastic, meaning that it is quite malleable when heated/warmed. Very fine gold or silver would be fashioned into either fine rods or leaf designs and the pressed into the already warmed tortoiseshell.

After the gold and silver was set, the shell was left to cool down which would then contract to hold the metal in place.

Prior to 1870, the metals were cut by hand allowing for very fine and intricate detail then after 1870, machines started to do the work resulting in more straight and angular designs.

The attention to detail no matter the age is always something that never ceases to amaze people especially when you consider that these pieces were often made well over 140 years ago and still look superb today.

Pique jewellery can most commonly be found in earrings and pendants, and the designs and colouring are amazing to admire.

This form of jewellery making is now a lost art as both the elephant and Hawksbill turtle are protected species, meaning that pique jewellery will become harder and harder to find as the years go by.

Click here to see more antique pique jewellery:

https://www.kalmarantiques.com.au/product-category/antique/pique-jewellery-antique/

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