I’ll Be Watching You: The Georgian Eye Brooch

They look a bit like you lost the rest of the portrait, but they were made this way on purpose. The lover’s eye brooch which morphed into the loved one’s eye brooch was a jewelry fashion during the Georgian period which cover most of the 18th Century and into the early 19th Century. They featured a tiny painted image of either one eye or two, often with a bit of hair as well. The idea is that your love was secret, so this little hint of her or him would not give them away. This one is made of rose gold with lots of tiny seed pearls. Then the back has both dark brown and lighter hair woven together and sealed inside. 

I can understand miniature portraits of whole faced to be kept on a desk or slipped in a pocket, but these don’t make as much sense to me since if you wore them, you couldn’t see them much, or perhaps you wore them under a lapel or something and peeked? In any case, this one is for sale at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago and will go on sale next month.

An Art Nouveau Yellow Gold and Diamond Acorn Motif Powder Case

I guess you are truly chic as well as wealthy if your compact is made of gold and decorated with a diamond. This one also features the impossibly graceful lines that make for Art Nouveau style which became popular in the 1890s. Here we see a cluster of acorns and leaves far more beautifully arranged than anything found by a real squirrel. Inside is a mirror so you can admire yourself  while you use it. I am going to call it jewelry cause it might as well be.

I found it here: https://www.lesliehindman.com/important-jewelry-aug-2018/