Mizpah Grouse bird foot brooch

 Mizpah grouse bird foot brooch with an amber glass rhinestone

Picked this vintage grouse foot brooch up at a local car boot sale recently. Haven't seen one in ages that hasn't been damaged with claws missing. Once very popular in the pre 1980s to Victorian period. This is a real birds claw and the birds were bred for game purposes. Hunting this bird for sport and for food was once very popular. The bird's claw was then preserved to use for jewellery. Traditionally wearing this grouse brooch is said to bring you good luck when hunting and was a favourite for wearing as a little reminder of Scotland. 

 

This vintage brooch is in a silver metal and has a large amber faceted rhinestone. The stone is prong set into the end of the jewellery. It has a ring on the bird claw and is stamped "Mizpah" on the reverse with the two heart symbols with an arrow through. Difficult to photograph as the "fur" got in the way. The pin is now a bit wobbly in shape and is fastened under style.

Mizpah was a signature used by the Ward Brother's initially. The designs were brought out by the company who made Miracle jewellery in Birmingham. This company is now under the St Justin's company in Cornwall.

Happy New Year 2012 from Jewels and Finery

As 2011 draws to an end, its a time to reflect and plan for the New Year. We have had another fabulous year at Jewels and Finery UK. Sourcing many great pieces of vintage jewellery that we know have gone to good new homes to be worn for special occasions and every day, collected and admired.

Plans are now well in hand for this coming year, new ideas and lines on our website.  Which we hope you will enjoy.

So to all have a Happy New Year, good luck, good health and a prosperous one.


Sue & Mark Jewels and Finery UK

Scottish brooch by Mizpah

Scottish Jewellery - Ptarmigan or Grouse Foot Brooch

Okay so you either like them or thing they are grouse! That is Scottish jewellery Ptarmigan or grouse foot brooches!

Since the Victorian era when Scottish jewellery became popular. The birds foot of the Ptarmigan has been used in the jewellery industry, to produce claw brooches.
Originally worn on kilts, shawls and cloaks - it was prized for good luck especially when on a game hunting trip. Still very collectible vintage jewellery today.
Grouse bird foot brooches can be found in both silver and costume. The silver ones are hall marked and were made by the Ward brothers. (Ideal for dating with the hallmark) The brothers were originally producing jewellery in Scotland but also opened another factory in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, as the popularity was such for their Scottish and other jewellery.
They also produced costume grouse pins under the Mizpah range.

The signature is above with two hearts and an arrow through. Not signed Mizpah on some pieces. Made by Quarrier Ward and the Ward Brothers - the designs now owned by Miracle.
Some brooches are unsigned and may be displayed on just a card.   

The real feet are decorated with Cairngorm stones usually of glass but some are the real gemstone. They can also be found with amethyst coloured stones. Again some of the stones are real amethyst and usually on the silver versions.
Earlier brooches are made with very skinny feet and later versions being fatter. I think the later ones are not real feet but manufactured. Different finishes are also available with either smooth silver or silver tone to a pattern on the jewellery. Still made today by Miracle as still very popular Scottish souvenirs.

Above is a silver ptarmigan grouse foot brooch in metal.

Also was available in just gold tone if you do not want a real foot!

Jewellery Glossary - G

Well November has arrived and with only 51 days to Christmas now!! Usually I am running around at the last minute and panicking, but this year I am slightly more organized and have already started my shopping.
We have also had a busy week with photographing lots of jewellery as well as buttons and buckles for our craft site.

 Vintage tiger brooch

Now onto the jewellery glossary and for the letter G we have the following:

Garnet - A variety of gemstone that is available in a variety of colours of red, green, violet and yellow.  The dark red coloured stone was very popular in Victorian times.Garnets are thought to bring a warm fiery energy that helps fight cold and sluggish feelings.


Guilloche enamel - transparent or translucent enamel that is applied to metal that is engraved in detail

German silver - an alloy that does not contain silver also known as Tibetan silver.

 Vintage bow brooch signed Lisner

Gold - precious metal. Pure gold is 24 Karat (99.9%) but it is soft. To harden more copper or other base metal is added. 18 K was used in antique (rose gold) and Russian jewellery. Gold can also be used as a gold plating or wash, as well as gold filled/rolled gold.

  Antique gold fob with carnelian & bloodstone

Green Jasper - a type of quartz with a long history of being used in making amulets and ornaments. Magically believed to protect from snake bites and poisons.

Here are some of our latest photographs of vintage jewellery and vintage buckles to be added to our websites soon.

 

Brooch pins - what message do they give?

Madeleine Albright the X- US secretary of state came to my notice recently; not because of her politics and successful career, but because of her love of jewellery especially brooches and pins.

She was once asked why she was wearing a snake brooch. She replied "because Saddam Hussein has just called me a snake"
Soon the world was looking at her huge collection of brooches and pins to guess her mood or that reflected what work she was doing at the time.

Most women usually match a brooch to the outfit or pick their favorite to wear. But this concept used by Madeleine to communicate a message is not new. For many years ancient civilizations wore jewellery that had a meaning. King Tutankhamun's bracelets, the ones found on his mummified arms had symbolic devices forming the principal decoration. Along with the gold inlay, coloured stones and glass. The eye of the sky and war god, Horus and the scarab beetle were the potent symbols used on most of his bracelets and bangles..
Victorians often gave Mizpah pins and love brooches to their loved ones. They were adored with initials and names, many had symbols to say - good luck, friendship or wedded bliss.

So tomorrow instead of wearing jewellery to look good, resurect the symbolic meaning and send out a powerful message instead.

Try a shield brooch for protection

A Russian floral brooch to give an aura of harmony.

Wear a lucky heather brooch to a job interview or to take a driving test.


Or this vintage Christmas brooch of a basket of flowers to get through a Christmas lunch with the dreaded in laws!!

Read My Pins is Madelineine Albright's autobigraphy. Haven't read this yet but intend to soon.

Next time you look at someone's brooch and think - has it a meaning.....

Owl Brooches added recently to Jewels and Finery

Just a quick blog to say we have added a few more vintage brooches in the last few days
Below is an antique brooch from Scotland.

Antique Scottish Thistle Brooch

Then we have added some cameo brooches including this bar one of the three muses


Vintage Cameo Brooch Three Muse

A vintage signed brooch from Napier of a green eyed owl


Vintage Green Eyed Owl Brooch Signed Napier

Just a few of the brooches for sale added to the website in the last few days. More to be added today and through out this week

Brooches are ideal for adding to clothes - Either wear on a lapel of a jacket or coat, on a T-shirt, add to a bag or to a hat. They just brighten up your outfit. Vintage brooches are often better made than more recent ones and of a huge variety from floral, birds, animals, contemporary, comical, figural, names, sun, moon, stars and so many more..........

Using Dress Clips and Scarf Clips as necklaces

The idea of using dress clips and scarf clips was one of the subjects discussed a few months ago on the Jewelry Ring. A few members used their dress clips as necklaces with a thick chain.

So when the question came up on how to use sweater guards or sweater clips (collar clips) on Queens of Vintage I first answered as for dress clips, but on realizing that the question meant sweater clips. Another use could still be as a necklace

Hunting through the boxes full of vintage jewellery for sweater clips I could only find a pair of Victorian Chatelaines, not clips. But the principle would be the same for dress clips as would sweater and scarf clips

Experiment with the thickness of chain necklaces and other materials such as mock pearl bead necklaces and chokers. Some clips will sit well but others will not.

This is a pair of Victorian Scottish dancers double brooches joined by a chain known as a chatelaine brooch. Sweater clips have alligator clips that are similar to the clips on men's tie bars or tie clips.


Here is an assortment of clips dress and scarf clips that I have to experiment with.



First I tried a square link necklace but the only clip that fitted fairly well was the dress clip, the others were too loose. I would suggest that sweater clips would sit well on this type of chain necklace

Next tried a chunky silver metal chain. This time the dress clip did not fit as the chain was too bulky, but the scarf clips were well suited as the chunkiness held the clip quite secure


Looking through necklaces and chokers that would be suitable, I came across this mock pearl bead work choker


Again the 1930s scarf clips were too bulky but the dress clip sat firm and looked quite unique. A similar bead work necklace would be ideal for sweater clips also.

Finally took some thick long chains and tried fitting the clips.


Both dress and scarf clips fitted very well. However sweater clips would slip along the chain unless they were small enough to fit side by side









Have fun with fitting clips to chains and experimenting. Would love to see how others get on

Scottish jewellery by Exquisite

One of the best known range of jewellery by Exquisite of Solihull was the Scottish Jewellery souvenir brooch range


A combination of lucky white heather and/or purple thistles all tied up with the Exquisite trade mark ribbon or bow.

All things Scottish had been made famous and popularized by Queen Victoria. Exquisite made gilt jewellery from 1914 and before moving to Solihull in the fifties, was already making souvenirs from their premises in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. Many of these souvenir brooches were sold in Scotland and were widely available in many small souvenir shops. From the number in Birmingham and other places - I think they were also readily available across the rest of the UK.

So far I have counted at least a dozen different styles of the Scottish brooches. One source confirms that three brooches were registered in 1962. These brooches will have "EXQUISITE" and "REG" with the copy right sign on the back. The design numbers were 905225, 905226 and 905227.
However many of the brooches have "EXQUISITE" on only, Some have Exquisite in script and some are unsigned with a riveted pin fastening - denoting an much earlier date.

More research is still needed to confirm dating and reg numbers to designs.

The brooches were hand enamelled and so not only can many different designs be collected but each will have a slight difference. Some of the brooches have amethyst purple coloured faceted glass stones. Again some are very pale ranging to dark purple in colour


When I am discussing the Scottish brooch range I am only referring to the ones that are enamelled and have heather or thistles, with or without purple glass stones in silver or gold tone metal. Exquisite also produced a range of Scottish themed jewellery very similar to "Miracle" jewellery with faux stones such as turquoise and agate which look quite different. They also produced enamelled Scottish flower brooches as well.

Exquisite Jewellery Part 3 Leaf Series

This blog on Exquisite Jewellery by W A P Watson Ltd continues to create interest across the world. Please view the comment from the USA by Mike Savage, whose mother worked on the Exquisite range in the fifties. Mike the Ring O Bells garage is still there and thank you to all for the comments and emails!

I am still waiting to hear from the company in Shirley but have been busy researching at the local library. Only 3 paper clippings were recorded in the archives. From 1965, 1972 and 1973

In the Solihull news from Saturday 27th February 1965, Exquisite had celebrated its jubilee having been founded in 1915. 14 representatives now cover the country from Glasgow to Christchurch and from Northern Ireland (and Eire) to the East Coast. The business has one section working in Paris, where patterns are constantly being added by a team of designers.

"Inspired by King Tut" was the title in the Solihull News in August 26th 1972. Exquisite was showing a new range of jewellery inspired by the exhibition of King Tutankahmun's treasure in London. Most of the necklaces and bracelets are slightly smaller copies of the actual pieces in the exhibition. While the rings are have been created in a similar design to finish the set. Made in a lightweight gold plated metal they are hand painted in vivid jewel colours. The collection was available in Beatties of Solihull and Leslie's of Station Road in September (1972).
I have researched many styles of Exquisite jewellery and have yet only seen brooches and necklaces in turquoise faux stones and pearl beads, that look quite an Egyptian style; but I am sure that these are not this collection which I have yet to see samples. In the last blog when I wrote this, several appeared for sale on the internet - so maybe next update??

The last newspaper clip was from the Solihull News dated March 10th 1973, on the retirement of employee Harold Goldsworthy after 50 years with W A P Watson. His 200 workmates clubbed together to present him with a transistor radio and the directors gave him a gold watch to mark the occasion.

In the last blog, I had looked at signed jewellery pieces and unsigned pieces. In the Scottish range (which I will discuss the various pieces in another blog) you can find many unsigned pieces. I still believe they were manufactured before Exquisite used their signature. In these two examples from the front, they are very similar, with a more flattened leaf and different coloured glass stones. The back has signs of a different moulding process. The unsigned piece has a flat mould with a riveted clasp. The signed piece has been manufactured using a rounder mould and the pin clasp has been soldered to the brooch.

I would welcome any comments on the unsigned and signed Scottish range.




































These are just some of the different ranges of
Exquisite jewellery identified so far:

Birthday range
Scottish range
Mother of pearl/Abalone range
Marcasite & enamel range
Butterfly wing range
Enamel & pearl range
gilt range
silver tone range
Leaf & the tree fruit range
Multi-coloured stone range
faux gemstone range
Turquoise & pearl range
Faux jade range
Cameo range
Painted scene's range
Glass bead range
Figural range
Enamel leaf range
And so many more....

Each of these ranges will be looked at in the blog in the coming year
Today's range is the Enamel Leaf Range

In the Enamel Leaf Range, there are brooches and earrings (clip-on style)
The range has the following leaves depicted:
Vine
Beech
Horse Chestnut
Elm
Fig
Cherry
Hazel
Pine
Mountain Ash
Oak
Mulberry
Sycamore

All the range was painted in the greens and brown enamel as near to the natural colour of the individual leaves.

The box list has the leaf range in brooches and earrings only, but there are a few necklaces appearing on the internet for sale. These are mostly unsigned pieces. the vine seems to have been the most popular as there are many available on the market.
There are also some pieces that look to have been hand-painted, so well that the clasp and the back are also painted! However, the leaves were also available in silver-tone, gold-tone and enamelled in many other colours and marcasite etc. The same mould was used across a range of finishes.