Brooch Blether

04/08/2026

🦢🦢This stunning brooch on today’s BROOCH BLETHER is a sparkling pair of SWANS. 🦢🦢
Beautifully decorated with cat’s eye and crystal cabochons on a gold tone background.

Swans are one of my favourite creatures.
They are elegant and graceful.
They are transformative as in the tale of the ugly duckling
Mute swans are monogamous and pair bond for life.
Despite their elegance, they formidable creatures and will protect their young fiercely.
They are represented in music and beauty. Swan lake is by far my favourite ballet.
Unmarked mute swans on certain stretches of the River Thames belong to the Crown. There is an annual census that counts, weighs and monitors the swans.

Although the brooch itself is not Swarovski, it certainly is as well made. It’s thoroughly lovely and as elegant as the swans themselves.

02/08/2026

Enjoying precious moments with my mum 🤗🫶🙌💕

02/08/2026

Oooooh!!! This brooch is possibly NEARLY 200 YEARS OLD!! 😮

BROOCH BLETHER brings this tiny work of art, which is hand painted onto a ceramic porcelain, then hand mounted into a thin brass frame. The clasp for the pin is a simple C clasp.

However, this is no ordinary copy of a 20th century miniature plaque. As with all works of art, this hand painted porcelain holds many clues as to it’s potential origin and the date it was made.
The painting of the two females… WHO WERE THEY?
This is not just simple primitive folk painting, it looks deliberately simple yet the brush strokes, shadowing, positioning of the females, their pursed lips and rosy cheeks, their hair style, high foreheads and dress all give clues. These are well thought out details.

BUT… the detail does not end there!
The colour of the ladies gowns is not accidental.
The colour Mauve was a new colour invention in 1856 and would have signified the wearer as ‘modern’.
The green gown does the same job in that stable green dyes or pigments were highly prized as they required careful chemical mastery to achieve!
These two females were being portrayed as modern thinking women and ‘technologically astutue!’ It would have raised their social status.

Colour meaning was very prominent in those days as society was saturated with a long history of religious iconography.

I don’t believe this is a Biedermeier brooch but it has definitely been influenced by that style.
There are similarities, yet this brooch is distinctly beautiful in its own right! It may not be as refined as a Biedermeier but it’s craftsmanship, hidden meanings and age make this a treasure indeed!

Before I finish … who were these ladies? Were they specific ladies, or a generic representation of ladies of that era? They appear to have kinship due to their pose of shoulders touching. Their facial features look similar. One lady is slightly forward of the other. Is she the eldest sister?
Their pale long necks, overly rosy cheeks and lips combined with their parted hairstyle possibly identify an era of european culture.
More photos in the comments

17/07/2026

17/07/2026

🎨What a gorgeous quirky little piece this is that got me STUMPED for today’s BROOCH BLETHER!! 😮

It is marked 925 for silver and has several marks on it (see comments for more photos) but despite my thorough research I cannot 100% confirm the maker or where it was made! Ugghh

It has beautiful marcasite stones (which are iron sulphide) which give the stones their metallic lustre.
The artists paints across the top of the palette are
⚫ Black (likely onyx or black enamel)
⚪ White (possibly mother-of-pearl or cultured pearl)
🔵 Blue (likely lapis lazuli or blue glass)
🔴 Red (possibly carnelian or red agate/glass)
🟢 Green (possibly chrysoprase, green agate or green glass)

The back is finely polished with several markings. Can you identify them?

17/07/2026

In all my posts it’s important to remember ‘we are all more precious than jewels’
Proverbs 31:10 🙌

This is my last post for a week in LIFE IN A BOX OF CHOCOLATES, as I go away to spend some time with my precious mum. Dementia demands a lot of care and giving my sisters a well-earned break is my responsibility, as well as getting time to grasp a few moments each day when mum is more lucid. The moments are reducing weekly. Time to grab them whilst I can. Dementia is a season for a whole family and takes constant adjustment. ‘Team Jordan’ (my maiden name) 🤗

Here is a sparkling rhinestone necklace from the 1960’s. It would instantly elevate any outfit. I have seen my mum wearing these types of necklaces when going somewhere special. She suited them so much.

Beautifully claw set rhinestones set in a rhodium coloured plating. Good movement in the necklace to add to the ‘sparkle’

16/07/2026

🇫🇷A fascinating BROOCH BLETHER today with this vintage French Normandie girl brooch which is around 100 years old!

This is a lovely vintage silver tone brooch, with the face of a young girl wearing a headscarf and cross necklace, with the word ‘Normandie’ stamped beneath.

The brooch dates from 1925
I believe this may have been a tourist piece as Normandy was a very popular tourist destination before the war, and tourists would buy pieces with French traditional costume.

The clasp on the back is Edwardian as it is a trombone clasp (a little tube for the pin to sit in), so dates the brooch accurately.

16/07/2026

LIFE IN A BOX OF CHOCOLATES is sparkling today ✨✨✨ with this double stranded necklace.
This is one my mum would have enjoyed selling at vintage and antique fayres. Her stalls would always look incredible and so eclectic, so interesting!!

The stones in the necklace are rainbow finished in aurora borealis, introduced by Swarovski in 1955
The stones are faceted chaton, and rivoli stones (pointed) for maximum sparkle, and they truly do sparkle! ✨✨

The stones are held in place by a silver band and claw around each stone called ‘bezel’ setting.
The necklace has decorative filigree connectors making this higher quality costume jewellery, although the filigree is pressed rather than punched, so not totally high end.

See the photo in the comments to view the rivoli bezel set stones.

The necklace dates around 1958-1965