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Victorian Silver 14K Gold Horse Head Sporting Brooch browse these categories for related items... All Items: Estate Jewelry:Silver:Victorian: Pre 1900: item # 925158
Kensington House Antiques Kensington Maryland (301)942-0955 Guest Book SOLD, PLEASE VISIT US AGAIN! |
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A stunning Viennese silver and gold brooch styled as a fully three-dimension horse’s head. The horse is fully rigged with a bit, bridle and reins, all worked in 14K yellow gold. The level of detail on both the front and back of the brooch is simply amazing. It has a sculptural quality rarely seen in animal-theme jewelry. The texture of the short hairs of the faces is palpable and even the veins running down from the horse’s forehead to its muzzle are picked out in detail. The base of the neck is marked with the maker’s mark “H & S” and the original c-clasp is stamped with Austrian silver hallmarks used 1872-1922. The brooch is presented in its original fitted box, the interior of the lid imprinted “Moppert/Baden-Baden”. Baden-Baden was the leading European luxury spa during the last half of the nineteenth century, counting Queen Victoria and the French, German, and Austrian emperors as regular guests. Wilhelm Moppert established the town’s most exclusive jewelry shop and sold to Europe’s crowned heads and nobility. He was often in a position to purchase jewels, as well. Dostoyevsky writes of the shop in his novel “The Gambler”, frequently mentioning the unlucky gamblers in the renowned casino who were forced to sell their jewels at Moppert to settle their gambling debts. Origin: Austria/Germany, ca. 1875. Condition: excellent, all original, never polished. Size: 1-3/4” x 1-3/4”. Weight: 17.4 grams. |
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