We often look at jewelry here at
Stalking the Belle Époque, and every so often, I give you a look at my collection of
antique stickpins. Gentlemen’s stickpins were a major source of business for jewelers well until the early Twentieth Century, and, as we’ve seen, the care and creativity that went into their manufacture was as great as the efforts put into women’s jewels. Jewelers took pride in their unique designs and their innovations in settings and cuts.
Here, we see one jeweler’s efforts to advertise his skills from the jewel collection of the
Victoria & Albert Museum. This unusual display shows three specimens of gem setting, preserved under a glass dome. A silver shield below the specimens is inscribed, “Specimen of Gem Setting Executed by John Whenman of Clerkenwell London 1864, No. of Stones 451.”
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The display is surmounted by a lavish stickpin in the form of a bust of St. George bedecked in a plumed helmet. This masterpiece of gold and silver is set with rose-cut diamonds, rubies, pearls, and pavé-set turquoises. Another stickpin of gold, silver and precious stones with pearl accents, shows a bust of a man, also wearing a helmet, with a pivoted crest and cuirass. His torso has been ornamented with a star shaped decoration. And, finally, we see the silver feathers of the Prince of Wales set with diamonds which forms a third stickpin.
This assortment of his wares was shown by the maker at the North London Working Classes Industrial Exhibition of 1864, and earned John Whenman a first prize certificate.
