Dating sweet Swallow brooch

A

Arabella's Treasures

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I just cannot date this very sweet swallow brooch and neither could a couple of vintage jewellery sellers I know. We have gone from decade to decade but with no luck.
 

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Unfortunately, no!

I've been racking my brain trying to remember where I know that combination of c-clasp and triangular loop hinge from, and just found it: It was on an Egyptian silver filigree pin I'd struggled like you to date, till I deciphered the hallmark and discovered it was used post-1946.

egyptian%20pin%20back-001.jpg


Frankly, I'm not sure when your sweet pin is from either; hopefully one of our jewelry experts will come along soon with a more helpful opinion than mine! My point is that, though swallows and lockets/charms were popular in late Victorian and Edwardian jewelry, the construction on this one could point to considerably later.
 
Thank you so much for your help. To me it has always had a sense of WW2 to it but the fact it has a transfer like detail on it and not engraved always threw me.
 
Arabella's Treasures said:
Thank you so much for your help. To me it has always had a sense of WW2 to it but the fact it has a transfer like detail on it and not engraved always threw me.
Click to expand...

Liza's reference is good but I think the brooch is newer for the reasons you mentioned. The construction doesn't look "old" to me. If findings are patented - or you know the time frame when they were generally used, you can point to the findings to state the earliest time they were used but not the latest. There are brooches being made today with "C" catches. The pin stem is quite long but the lack of engraving and the overall construction makes me think "newer." Maybe WWII but I think even more recent.

I can really see why you are going round in circles on this one. I really don't know but my hunch is "newer."

Linn
 
Thank you Linn. It's a mystery still. My other half who is an antiques dealer thinks it's Edwardian and it is sterling silver. I have only managed to find one other very similar today on a google search in Etsy which was described as Victorian. If it helps at all, it was amongst jewellery all older than the 1950's.
 
Ah! And of course, all those ethnic/hand-made items are especially tricky, because, almost by definition, they are made the same way now as they ever were -- usually by hand, and of the same materials and in the same design as 50 or 100 or 150 years ago. Unless they're mass-produced to resemble the hand-made stuff, the real hand-made stuff looks the same no matter how old it is. Definitely throws a wrench into the dating process!
 
Liza - looking over the above information, there's an important omission which is the riveted hinge introduced in the late 1890's. Most important, though is that many earlier findings continue to be used even today so the only thing you can be sure of is that something was not made prior to the patent date (or patented applied for date).

Linn
 
Hi Folks -- Since we're having this discussion, I think this piece serves as a good example to show the differences between "fittings" and "findings".

This piece has "fittings" and not findings, which means that the pinback is entirely hand wrought. Findings are machine made. So if you look closely, you will see that the stem and catch are pulled from wire, and the tube style 'hinge' constructed from a small piece of silver sheeting.

Jewelry has been made in this way since early antiquity -- and so as we all know, it is critical to look at all of the details. :USETHUMBUP:
 
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