Interesting Pin

[CuriousCollector]

Any ideas of era, or if it was mourning jewelry or something like that?





This pin is not quite two inches long.  It appears to be ivory or bone.  The black parts appear to be painted (enamel?).  The glimmery line through the black is tiny pieces of mother of pearl (some slivers are lost).  The center would have been a cirlce of tiny silver dots, but about half are missing.  I can't tell what the dots were made of.

It's not perfectly even -- in the pic of the back of the pin you can see the top edge is not parallel to the measuring tape on the left corner.  Also there are these two filled-in holes on each side edge (you can see it in this same pic). 

Another find from among FIL's storage unit -- this time in a china dish with a lid, filled with costume earrings for un-pierced ears.

[talesofthesevenseas]

This does not look like mourning jewelry to me, I believe the style is too bold for mourning, but I could be wrong. I would guess that it was intended just as regular jewelry. If you look at it with a loupe you should be able to determine if it is bone, ivory or celluloid. There's info on how to do this in the special threads section, but basically look for the double criss-crossing grain. (usually more faint than shown in this example)

Ivory:




Bone:



Celluloid:

[KC]

I agree with Tales of that it doesn't appear to be mourning jewelry as well.  

Ebony and Ivory jewelry was very much a craze in the 1800's and MOP inlays were uncommon!

Can you take a better close up pic of the pin on the back?  Trying to determine age...

[Omega Entity]

Those filled holes look to be about the right spacing for a dual-drilled bead, like on one of those wide bracelets. Are they present on the other side too? It could be a part from a bracelet, repurposed as a pin!

Example of what I mean:

[mariok54]

I think that Omega has hit it on the nail... It looks like a piece from a bracelet, such as the traditional Scottish Agate and Granite bracelets

[CuriousCollector]

Yes indeed, the holes are on both sides!

I can't get a better pic of the pin -- my camera isn't too good at closeups.  I'll try again, though.

Thanks everyone!

[sapphire]

Ahh, remembering the old bakelite bracelets !!