Mastery of Design: A Brilliant Royal Heart, 1936

Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Via  The Royal Collection Trust
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

This small diamond heart came into the Royal Collection in 1936.  That's really all we know about it.  I like to think that the future King George VI purchased it for the Future Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) during his period of grief over the death of his father, King George V, and confusion during the whole Abdication Kerfuffle (TM), as a way of thanking her for standing by him.  But, I have no proof of that.  It's more likely that Queen Mary picked it up somewhere.

The small white gold heart-shaped brooch is designed to depicts a ribbon twisted through the heart.  It is studded with brilliant-cut diamonds. A small yellow gold pin and hook fastener attaches the brooch to a garment.

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Mastery of Design: Anne Hull Grundy's Morning Glory Brooch

Brooch of Diamonds, White Gold, Nephrite, Chalcedony
The British Museum

Click on image for larger size.  

Made in Germany circa 1930, this handsome brooch of white gold, nephrite, diamonds and stained chalcedony still is matched with its original invoice for £400, as purchased by Anne Hull Grundy.  Taking the form of a brilliant morning glory, the brooch is an interesting combination of Art Deco design ideals and the romantic naturalism favored in the late Nineteenth Century.

Obviously, this is part of the important Hull-Grundy Gift of hundreds of unusual jewels which was bequeathed to The British Museum.