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Based on the medieval Cavan Brooch. Inscription on the back in raised letters that are moulded right into the tooling: “West & Company Registered 1849” Hollow gilt silver 2.25 inches diameter.A facsimile of this pattern executed in Wicklow gold with a large Irish river pearl was created as a gift from the Provost and Senior Fellows of Trinity College to Queen Victoria to mark the occasion of her visit to the Library Subsequently this brooch was also known as the “Queen’s Brooch”. Commissioned by West & Co and manufactured by Edmond Johnson Jr.

Celtic Revival Jewellery can be defined as jewellery based on the Medieval or Iron Age design traditions of the Irish, Scots and other Celtic cultures. Beginning with wearable facsimiles of ancient pieces that were produced in Dublin in the 1840s and Scottish Victorian pebble jewellery of the same period. In the early decades of the 20th century the style merged somewhat with Arts and Crafts Movement values and sometimes became much more original and modern in its interpretation.

The revival of the Celtic visual arts continued in an unbroken tradition from Victorian times to the present, however the style faded from popularity for half a century between the 1920s and 1970s. The current wave of revival is sometimes referred to as the Celtic Renaissance.

The Royal Tara Brooch

The discovery and subsequent mass production of facsimiles of the splendid Tara Brooch in 1850 is often seen as the beginning of modern Celtic jewellery, however the fashion for medieval inspired brooches had already begun several years previous. Beginning in the 1840s some of the most up-to-date technology was used to manufacture these objects. The marketing used the emerging mass communications of advertising and promotion at world’s fairs. The message of the Celtic Revival was to channel pride in artistic accomplishments of the past into the present. The copies were adapted in size and fitted with modern pin catches to make them somewhat more wearable. They appealed to national vanity and an idealized past.  The so-called Tara Brooch was found by children near Drogheda, Co. Meath in 1850 and eventually sold to the firm of Samuel Waterhouse in Dublin. Waterhouse exhibited the original 8th century brooch in conjunction with their very successful marketing of gilt silver facsimiles which were styled as The Royal Tara Brooch.

Scotch Pebble Jewellery

Also called Scotch agate jewellery, this style gained fashionable acceptance in Scotland as a direct result of the young Queen Victoria and Prince Albert having pebbles that they had personally found on the Queen’s Balmoral Estate made into gifts for each other and for their friends and family. As middle class tourism became much more common in the late 19^th century, the fashion for jewellery as souvenirs accelerated the growth of this colourful style. Local materials, such as the Montrose agates, Aberdeen granites and Cairngorm citrines were combined with distinctly Scottish styles and motifs. Kilt pins were often made in the form of bladed weapons associated with the romantic image of the kilted clansman. Beginning around 1850 manufacturers, first in Aberdeen and then in Edinburgh, manufactured an imaginative variety of colorful jewelry, eventually contracting the production out to Birmingham and even Germany. Typically the metal portion of the jewellery is soldered together from stamped silver shells, produced by steel dies. The stones are then cemented in place, often filing the hollow silver or gold body of the piece with a mixture of shellac. Usually hand engraved scrolls, wiggles, and bright cuts finish the designs. These pieces were mass produced   using expensive tooling, dies and stamping presses, but also requiring highly skilled jewelers for the soldering, engraving, and the skilled lapidary work to cut, polish, and fit the stones. The manufacture of pebble jewellery flourished from the 1860s to the First World War. Some production continues to the present and the style is frequently imitated since the 1960s using cast base metal settings.  In the popular Harry Potter movies the character Professor McGonnagall, played by Margaret Smith, speaks with a Scottish accent and her costume is accessorized with a distinctive pebble brooch that further establishes her Scottish identity. 

Silver and enamel pendant by Alexander Ritchie, Isle of Iona, Scotland, early 20th century.

The Arts and Crafts Movement

In 1899 Alexander and Euphemia Ritchie began their business on Iona and Archibald Knox (1864-1933) began work for Liberty and Co. Both were very influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement. Knox was the main designer for the ‘Cymric’ and ‘Tudric’ Celtic range of handmade metalwork, frequently described as British Art Nouveau. This was manufactured and sold by the London department store Liberty and Co. Rather than basing his designs on specific historical models Knox worked in an abstract style that captures the spirit of interlace design. In his jewelry Knox liberates the knot from its background and uses it to form the entire structure of his jewelry pieces. Knox’s designs are not copied from historical sources, but are original modern creations. Ritchie also created original modern designs, but continued to do a great deal of work that is directly copied from historical sources or is adapted from them.