Friday, October 5, 2012

Halley's Comet jewelry


Looking for something to start collecting? How about Halley's Comet jewelry? Yes, please.

I had no idea this kind of collectible, commemorative jewelry existed until I spotted a curious, tiny pin at my local antique shop. The design seemed unusual to me, with such a large stone set way at the end of a delicate frame. I had never seen anything like it before, not even in my books.

I didn't buy it but I couldn't stop thinking about it. About a week later, while searching for something else online, I came across an Art of Mourning post about comet jewelry. "That's it! That's got to be it!" I thought to myself. As it turns out, Halley's Comet jewelry was quite trendy around the 1835 and 1910 sightings (the 1986 sighting didn't produce anything noteworthy). Victorian and Edwardian jewelers were inspired by the comet and produced a style of pin set with a single stone trailed by a metal "tail."

I immediately went back to buy it. Can you blame me?

Here are two more gorgeous examples from the Morning Glory Victorian information page.



To see all kinds of cool antique comet ephemera, check out this page. To see more Halley's Comet jewelry, visit here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh, that's something I've never seen. I will definitely keep my eye out for these in the future! Did you go back and grab the one you'd seen?

NeatoKeen@Etsy said...

Fascinating. I will be on the lookout for them. Thanks for enlightening us!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

You go Duff. It's super cool that you noticed exactly what was unusual about this pin. You are becoming a real expert with your eyes. Congrats on your all your achievements!
Love and hug :)
Claire

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