Title: Antique Hand-made Blue Lapis Brooch Fibula Accessory
Shipping: $18.00
Artist: N/A
Period: Unassigned
History: N/A
Origin: N/A
Condition: Excellent
Item Date: 1890 to 1930
Item ID: 1601
This antique blue lapis jewelry pin, with silver and gold, dates from the early 19th century. The stone is a very high quality lapis, with strong streaks of gold running throughout the piece. The setting is some kind of gold metal, a border of vintage style beading. This antique estate jewelry piece dates from ca. 1820 and is in excellent original condition. A brooch, also known in ancient times as a fibula, is a decorative jewelery item designed to be attached to garments, often to hold them closed. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold but sometimes bronze or some other material. Brooches are frequently decorated with enamel or with gemstones and may be solely for ornament (as in the stomacher) or sometimes serve a practical function as a fastening, perhaps for a cloak. The earliest known brooches are from the Bronze Age. As fashions in brooches changed rather quickly, they are important chronological indicators. We are committed to enhancing our customer’s lives by discovering creating, and pointing out only the best art we can find in the world today. We Are Taste-Makers, Art Advisers & Consultants.
Encyclopedia Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapis_lazuli
Lapis lazuli (sometimes abbreviated to lapis) is a semi-precious stone prized since antiquity for its intense blue color. Lapis lazuli has been mined in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan for 6,500 years, and trade in the stone is ancient enough for lapis jewelry to have been found at Predynastic Egyptian sites, and lapis beads at neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and even as far from Afghanistan as Mauritania. Lapis lazuli is a rock, not a mineral: whereas a mineral has only one constituent, lapis lazuli is formed from more than one mineral. Lapis lazuli usually occurs in crystalline marble as a result of contact metamorphism. The finest color is intense blue, lightly dusted with small flecks of golden pyrite. There should be no white calcite veins and the pyrite inclusions should be small. Stones that contain much calcite at all or too much pyrite are not as valuable. Patches of pyrite are an important help in identifying the stone as genuine and do not detract from its value. Often, inferior lapis is dyed to improve its color, but this is often a very dark blue with a noticeable grey cast, may also appear as a milky shade.
