Antique Brooches – Add a Touch of History to Your Wardrobe
A beautiful antique brooch will add a touch of history to your wardrobe. Whether you’re looking to buy an antique Victorian brooch or a vintage Edwardian brooch or a modern Art Deco pin, we have a stunning range of unique and rare pieces. From evocative floral motifs to elegant cameo designs and intricate enamelled creations, you’ll find a brooch to suit your personality and taste.
Historically, jewellery was worn to hold together parts of clothing or to signify relationships or status. For example, a mourning brooch was a way to show your love for a lost family member. But it wasn’t until the Victorian era that brooches really took off and became a popular symbol of affection. Our collection of period and antique brooches spans the Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco eras and features a variety of gorgeous gemstones and diamonds as well as beautiful pearls.
From vintage Victorian brooches to ornate shell cameos and hat pins, our antique brooch collection has something for everyone. Victorian era brooches were often large and bold, with flowers, hearts and animals featuring in many of the designs. The Edwardian era saw the introduction of platinum into jewellery and the creation of delicate filigree brooches designed to look like silk or lace. Victorian era locket brooches also became popular – with a small locket shaped brooch and a larger decorative brooch featuring flowers, leaves or hearts.
Another defining feature of Victorian era jewellery was enamelling. The technique involved fusing powdered glass to metal at high temperature. This allowed jewellers to create vivid areas of colour and add depth and dimension to their designs. A very popular design was the aigrette brooch. Feather-shaped and set with flat-cut garnets or diamonds in silver or silver-topped gold, aigrette brooches were often very detailed and could be worn as a hair accessory.
Foliate brooches were another popular design during the Victorian era, with forget-me-nots being an especially popular flower. This opal and tourmaline foliate brooch from the 1920s is an amazing example of this style of jewellery.
A brooch can be used to embellish a hat or jacket and can also be pinned to the centre of a dress for a focal point or to draw attention to a deep v neckline. Or you can wear it to decorate a silk scarf, shawl or headband. Brooches have been making a comeback over the past few years, with some of the world’s top fashion designers showing them on the runway and in their collections.
We’re proud to be able to showcase a beautiful selection of antique and vintage brooches at Pragnell. We’re sure you’ll find a piece that speaks to your heart and will become a favourite.
Antique Brooches UK
In our collection of antique brooches uk we have a wonderful selection of pretty pins from the Edwardian, Georgian and Victorian eras. From simple, delicate Edwardian stick pins to ornate Victorian depictions of flora and fauna and exemplars of the geometric Art Deco.
In the Art Nouveau jewellery era of the 1895 to 1905 there was a move away from the heavy sombre Victorian designs into more free flowing sinuous lines and natural forms such as flowers, birds and insects. Enamelling, including plique a jour enamel which let the light shine through the design was also popular.
For the late Victorian era there was an interest in a range of exotic materials, such as lapis lazuli and malachite, to be used to create intricate inlay designs. These motifs and scenes were created using micro mosaic techniques to encase semi precious stones in gold or silver.
Another type of late Victorian brooch was a ‘en tremblant’ brooch. This type of brooch featured a floral spray design where the centre of the flower was attached to a mechanism that allowed it to tremble, creating movement and catching the candlelight in a very elegant way.
As we have seen from recent high jewellery collections from Chanel and others, brooches are firmly back on the fashion scene pinned to the neckline of dresses and gowns and adorning hats and jackets in all styles. They are also being worn in hair and pinned to the side of a fishtail plait or even pinned to a chignon for weddings.