Edwardian Paste & Zircon Brooch

Dated 1910, this silver brooch captures the Edwardian fascination with lightness, delicacy, and nature-inspired design. Brilliant blue zircons form the center of a stylized flower, surrounded by leaf-shaped elements set with clear paste stones. 

The brooch's openwork construction is particularly characteristic of the period. Rather than creating a heavy, solid form, the jeweler used slender, curving leaves and open-backed gemstone settings to add dimension while maintaining an airy appearance. Viewed from the reverse, the carefully constructed settings reveal how deliberately the jeweler incorporated light into the design.

Paste has an important place in jewelry history and should not be mistaken simply for a modern imitation stone. Skilled craftsmen created fine paste jewelry to reproduce the brilliance and visual effect of precious gemstones, and by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it had developed into a collecting category of its own. By the Edwardian period, paste continued to appear in fashionable jewelry, sometimes alongside natural gemstones, as seen here with the vivid blue zircons.

Dated 1910 and stamped ENGLAND, this brooch brings together two very different sources of brilliance: the intense color and natural fire of zircon with the bright, silvery sparkle of period paste.