Extra Long Victorian Aesthetic Milk Glass Globe Hat Pin with Crystals, 1900s

A necessity during the Victorian Era, hat pins not only balanced precarious hats atop piles of hair but also moonlighted as weapons against overzealous gentlemen. Though teetering ha...

A necessity during the Victorian Era, hat pins not only balanced precarious hats atop piles of hair but also moonlighted as weapons against overzealous gentlemen. Though teetering ha...

A necessity during the Victorian Era, hat pins not only balanced precarious hats atop piles of hair but also moonlighted as weapons against overzealous gentlemen. Though teetering ha...

A necessity during the Victorian Era, hat pins not only balanced precarious hats atop piles of hair but also moonlighted as weapons against overzealous gentlemen. Though teetering ha...

A necessity during the Victorian Era, hat pins not only balanced precarious hats atop piles of hair but also moonlighted as weapons against overzealous gentlemen. Though teetering ha...

A necessity during the Victorian Era, hat pins not only balanced precarious hats atop piles of hair but also moonlighted as weapons against overzealous gentlemen. Though teetering ha...

BADGE WITH ST. JAMES THE GREAT Northern Spain, 16th century Silver, jet Weight 18.2 grams; dimensions 44 × 43 × 12 mm Round pendant with high-relief image of St. James the Great of Santiago de Compostela carved in jet. The saint is flanked by two pilgrims (their heads defaced); each holds a staff and rosary in his hand. Silver mount with plain flat backplate, corded wire surround and toothed edge as setting. Four pendant loops for sewing onto a hat or cloak. According to the Roman naturalist Pliny, jet, the material of which this pin was made, prevented snakebite and was “thrown up by the sea.” The first quality would certainly have been reassuring for a pilgrim who owned this object and who had to make long journeys over unfamiliar terrain. The second quality made jet an especially fitting material to honor St. James, given that his body arrived in Spain mysteriously, carried there “by the sea” from the Holy Land. Santiago de Compostela was a major center for jet carving from the late Middle Ages, and highly polished jet was a desirable and common material for pilgrimage souvenirs. One even finds scallop shells, the pilgrim’s badge...

Pâte de Verre octopus mounted in silver signed ALW (Almeric Walter),Nancy

The wonderful carved Essex Chrystal stickpin of a pug is mounted in gold. The reverse carved ad painted crystal has been executed in England in 1865 ca. The pug wears a collar with a...

Naturalistically modelled stickpin of a dog of outstanding quality, possibly a Yorckshire Terrier. The lovely animal has with ruby eyes, a golden snout and a pink enamelled tongue. I...

Rare stickpin with a gold hand in a lace cuff. The hand is clenched to a fist and it is holding a hinged element reminiscent of a door knocker in the shape of an ornate stirrup. A g...

The French artist Jean Painlevé, known primarily for his oceanic-themed films and photographs and whose work is currently exhibited in galleries around t...