This Victorian brooch takes the form of a beetle, its body and head carved from luminous labradorite and set in gold. While animal and insect forms were popular subjects in 19th-century jewelry, it’s unusual to see them rendered in labradorite. The stone’s shifting blue and green flashes gave it a mystical quality, and during the Victorian era it was sometimes carved into scarabs, owls, and other natural forms believed to hold symbolic or protective power.
MATERIALS: 14k gold, labradorite oval cabochons (6.3 x 5.3mm, 20 x 15mm)
AGE: c. 1880
CONDITION: Very good
SIZE: 1 1/4" x 1"