This piece makes my heart sing. It is so perfectly Victorian; of traditional form with a lovely bit of detail and decoration, but hiding a secret little sentimental message.
The fob itself is rather handsome. Solid gold, not cased (as always, please note that it’s not unusual for these jewels to have a small amount of ‘filler’ inside. This isn’t detected by XRF testing, it’s a traditional construction, and I would have to smash it up to check, which I don’t want to!) The gold work is bold but not overly chunky, and I love the sort of Gothic arch of the bale, very cool.
The intaglio shows a carrier pigeon holding a sealed letter, even depicting the sealing wax that secures it, which would have been impressed with a fob just like this! How amazing is that??! The feathers are all painstakingly etched out, the detail is incredible. Above the image are the words ‘REPOSPONDEZ VITE’ (‘reply quickly’, it’s in French to be fancy I imagine). This is super romantic, because the purpose of this fob would be used with sealing wax to close a love letter, the sender of which wants a reply urgently! Swoon, it’s too much!
In fantastic condition, this fob now makes a beautiful pendant to put on a favourite chain, and looks especially fab clipped onto an Albert chain, a nod to its original way of being worn.
Circa 1840
9ct gold (XRF tested) and bloodstone
Height 29mm including both bales, without either bale 18 × 15 × 11.5mm
4.5 grams
Excellent
This piece makes my heart sing. It is so perfectly Victorian; of traditional form with a lovely bit of detail and decoration, but hiding a secret little sentimental message.
The fob itself is rather handsome. Solid gold, not cased (as always, please note that it’s not unusual for these jewels to have a small amount of ‘filler’ inside. This isn’t detected by XRF testing, it’s a traditional construction, and I would have to smash it up to check, which I don’t want to!) The gold work is bold but not overly chunky, and I love the sort of Gothic arch of the bale, very cool.
The intaglio shows a carrier pigeon holding a sealed letter, even depicting the sealing wax that secures it, which would have been impressed with a fob just like this! How amazing is that??! The feathers are all painstakingly etched out, the detail is incredible. Above the image are the words ‘REPOSPONDEZ VITE’ (‘reply quickly’, it’s in French to be fancy I imagine). This is super romantic, because the purpose of this fob would be used with sealing wax to close a love letter, the sender of which wants a reply urgently! Swoon, it’s too much!
In fantastic condition, this fob now makes a beautiful pendant to put on a favourite chain, and looks especially fab clipped onto an Albert chain, a nod to its original way of being worn.
Circa 1840
9ct gold (XRF tested) and bloodstone
Height 29mm including both bales, without either bale 18 × 15 × 11.5mm
4.5 grams
Excellent
