faberge jewelry: birds

Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts

Ad ogni uccello suo nido è bello

(With every bird its own nest is charming)

Golden fifties brooch enameled parrots on nest

ANTWERP, August 16 (Reuters) – During the absence of the Gardener for his sabbatical leave this year it seems that some birds used the quietness in the Garden of Adin to procreate. A bird-spotter spotted a hatching pair of birds and had Adin's photographer called to make a snapshot of the little love couple. We wonder what their eggs will hatch.

Click the picture to see a close-up of these birds on their nest.

Antiqualy yours,
The Adin team
www.adin.be

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It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.

Fifties golden bird with demantoid eye and diamond beak on coral branch

Although Aesop (a Greek storyteller who lived 620-560 BC) meant something else with his saying, he couldn't be more accurate for the bird pictured here. If something got lost over the years in the art of jewelry making then it is the cooperation of various disciplines that are needed to get to one well designed and well made piece of jewelry. The artist/designer, the modeller, the goldsmith, the setter, the engraver, the polisher, all did one's bit in their field of expertise.

As is the case with this strange bird here. A typical product of the fifties of the twenthieth century. All sorts of animals were used as source of inspiration. Made in gold and precious stones sometimes even decorated with enamel, the result of the experts' collaboration was, most of the times, well-made, clever and cute.

The special thing about this bird, besides being funny and a well-made appearance, is the stone used for its eye. A beautiful velvetish light-green colored natural demantoid of nearly half a carat that gives a new dimension to the meaning of the word "sparkle". Proofing that only the best of best was used in such pieces. Demantoid is the most expensive and rare of garnet gemstones, with fine specimens like the one used here commanding prices of thousands of dollars per carat - even more expensive then diamond!

Click the picture to get to the descriptive page of this jewel.

Antiqualy yours,
The Adin team
www.adin.be

See our:

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Valentine's day

(there are more things in the air but love)

Magnificent Fifties brooch bird of paradise

Click here to get to the descriptive page of this pendant.

The origin of Valentine's day

The popular customs connected with Saint Valentine's Day's probably originated in medieval England and France. The most likely origin of the habits of Valentine's day is the old belief that birds starting to mate at February 14th. Specially in the Middle Ages, when "courtly love" was in flower, this belief was widely spread.

This belief about "love-birds" is probably the reason Saint Valentine's feast day came to be seen as specially consecrated to lovers, and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lover's tokens. English and French literature of the fourteenth and fifteenth-century contain allusions to this practice.

In the 14th Century the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer writes in his "Parliament of Foules":

For this was sent of Seynt Valentine's day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

Either the bird in the picture above is a Bird of Paradise or a rather feathery dove. One or the other, both could be considered Valentine's love symbolisms par-excellence. The Bird of Paradise represents (not surprisingly) paradise and doves in Victorian poetic terms are the symbol of love...

So why say it with flowers if you can say it with birds?

Antiqualy yours,
The Adin team
www.adin.be