The Daily Brooch, part 7 (the finale)

June 14:  another one from the archives with the 2002 estate sale price tag still attached ($12 if you are interested). Looks like it's from 1960s when Spanish colonial decor was in style. I cannot decipher the mark on the back. Maybe it's Middle Eastern, or Indian.

June 15: When I found this pair of scatter pins I debated about displaying them for #thedailybrooch . When does 1950’s costume jewelry cross the line of cultural appropriation? Would the reaction be the same if the ladies weren’t Thai but African or Native American? I looked up the definition of cultural appropriation: “a particular power dynamic in which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group.” (https://www.theweek.co.uk/cultural-appropriation)

This discussion guide from PBS is helpful. https://bento.cdn.pbs.org/hostedbento-prod/filer_public/whatihear/9-Cultural_Approp-Viewing_Guide.pdf

…………So, back to the scatter pins. I don’t remember seeing my mother wear them and I don’t recall that I have. (The pins remind me of head vases which I think are kind of creepy.) Lo and behold, though these aren’t marked they are certainly identified – a Google images search came up with vintage jewelry, Etsy, EBay and Pinterest links. And so I learned that they are Selro/Selini by designer Paul Selenger. https://www.jewelspast.com/selro-selini-jewellery/ “There are basically three different figural faces that are found in Selro/Selini jewellery: An Asian woman face (Often called ‘Thai Girl’), an old Asian man face and an African face. These faces can be found in numerous colours and textures (i.e. pearlized), plus are often over painted and embellished with elaborate headdresses that are part of the metal settings.”…………I am now better-informed and I hope that you are, too. (And the ladies are going back into the archives (which is a plastic shoebox that I keep in the linen cupboard).)

June 16:  Good advice any day! Reproduced from a 1978 poster by John Massey for ALA. I only know that because the artist credit is on the back of a notecard with the same design.

June 17:  Jonquils in bone china by Healacraft. The third and last of this subset of the collection.

When I rediscovered the bone china brooches I also took the miscellaneous bone china floral pieces out of the drawer. (Antiques dealers call these "smalls." A friend calls them "dustables.") The one I remember from childhood is the wheelbarrow. Others were most likely estate/rummage sale acquisitions that, in turn, did not sell at the Blaines' estate sale in 2002. (The price tag under the rabbit at the far right says $5.) The flowers and leaves chip easily and one of these bouquets has an entire flower broken off. Miraculously, the flowers in the wheelbarrow are intact.

June 18:  When I was home for semester break my freshman year in college my mother said that Corinne Albers (“Mrs. Albers” to me then) wanted to know when I’d be initiated into Alpha Gamma Delta. The message was relayed and I forgot about it – until a couple of days before initiation (which was March 13, 1971) when the package arrived. Corinne wrote for herself and for Lorraine, saying that the enclosed pin had belonged to her aunt Joy Mills who was an Alpha Gamma Delta at Nebraska Wesleyan. It was such a thoughtful and unexpected gift! I wore the pin on occasion but eventually it was stored with other Alpha Gam trinkets. Two years ago Fran Becque wrote this blog post https://www.franbecque.com/help-needed-solve-jewelry-mystery/ and I realized mine is a “tie bar pin."

June 19:  No great story.....it was sparkly and I liked it so I bought it. (At the local jewelry store, about 10 years ago.) I look forward to the time when we again have going-out occasions to wear pieces like this.

June 20: A historical piece from my husband’s side. It’s a 19th century stick pin, about 2-1/2” long. (The protective tip is long gone.) The initials are JVM for Julia Vosmus Mitchell. She was Stevens’ great-great-grandmother. She lived to age 95 (1822-1917) and was Grandma Mitchell to the Woods children (S’s mother and siblings). Julia was born in Danville, Androscoggin County, Maine, where her father Humphrey Vosmus was the postmaster. (Danville is just south of Auburn where we lived in the 1980’s. We didn’t know then that Humphrey and his wife (Julia’s mother) Eunice are buried in Pine St. Cemetery in Auburn.) Julia’s husband Asa graduated from Bowdoin in 1841; Stevens didn’t know that when he chose to go there.

I don’t know why the Library of Congress picked up Julia’s obituary, but it did. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84023253/1917-05-23/ed-1/seq-4/

Here are Julia and Asa. (Interesting that the daguerrotypes are hard to make out but the scan reproduces the pictures clearly.) 

June 21: A circle pin worn on a Peter Pan collar was a style from earlier years by the time I got this in the 1970's. It was an Alpha Gam convention favor (1972? 1977?)   In 1965 or 1966  I dressed up for my 8th grade photo (which meant I remembered when it was photo day) and wore a circle pin on my turquoise dress. That particular pin is long gone.  

Peter Pan collars were named for the style worn by actress Maud Adams who played Peter Pan on stage.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan_collar 

June 22:  When Stevens wanted to get not-a-diamond for my engagement ring he asked his friend David. At the time David was buying gemstones from a dealer in Calcutta who sent a sapphire and five pearls. Stevens gave me the sapphire and the pearls for my birthday. We took them to Newton’s Jewelers in Joplin to have them set – the sapphire as a ring and the pearls as this brooch and a pair of earrings in a matching setting. Shortly thereafter the sapphire cracked. David contacted the dealer who sent a replacement (how did the transactions occur so quickly before the Internet and global cell phone plans?). There was a moment of panic the day that  Stevens picked up the sapphire from David.  He thought he’d lost the new stone in downtown Pittsburg. I found out when David called and told me he had it. When S returned I said casually, “David called and said he has the sapphire.”) This sapphire is intact, though about 20 years ago the prongs on the ring gave out so we had it reset.

June 23: Joie Auray (“I shall have joy”). Museum of Fine Arts. A Christmas gift from Stevens. (He asked what I wanted. I circled items in the MFA catalog from which he could choose. He bought ALL of them.)

The MFA acquired the brooch in 1963 for $1000. “Curatorial research shows that the original brooch may have come from England, France or the Netherlands. It was probably used to fasten a dress at the neckline. Small ring brooches like this, made of gold, silver, tin, and copper alloys, are known from the 12th to the 1th century. The original brooch was made to be worn on either side since the pin rotates and there are inscriptions on both sides. On the front: Joie Auray (I shall have joy). On the reverse: “ce ara eut” which may mean “this will have,” but the meaning is unclear.”

Thank you for your affirming comments for this series. I’ve shared a brooch a day since April 13. It was fun to go into the archives (plastic shoeboxes in the linen cupboard). There was a little pressure (especially to be sure I had a different shirt/top each day). Research revealed things I hadn’t known.

JOIE AURAY! I shall have joy! And may you, too, have joy. 

THE END.