This beautiful and unusual stylized figural cat brooch is made from a rigid screen like pierced mesh with a golden vermeil gilt overlay finish with bold dark blue cobalt enamel applied stripes. It is impressed with the word “Silver” on the bottom, with no other hallmarks or signatures. The personality is great on the facial details, including the cute whiskers with little balls on the ends of them. The eyes are bezel set round turquoise stones, but I don’t know if they are made of faux or real turquoise. The tail wraps around to the front of the body and also has the enameled stripes and a blue tip. It measures approximately 1 ¾ inches long, 1 ¼ inches wide and 1 ¼ inches tall. It is three dimensional in design. It weighs .40 ounces on my postage scale, which converts to 11.34 grams.
I believe that this delightful cat was created as a shoulder brooch because of the way the pin is mounted and the weight of the cat’s head. You can see how nicely it sits in the photo on the shoulder. It tends to look down when pinned as a regular brooch. It also sits beautifully on the table and would also work in a display cabinet as part of a cat collection if you choose not to wear it as a brooch. This is most likely Chinese, but it is not signed and I don’t know the actual history so I can’t be sure.
This cat is in great vintage condition as you can see by the enlarged photographs. There is no enamel missing and there are no cracks or pitting or repairs that I can see. There are a few tiny darker spots on the gold finish, I did not try to polish them (see photos). I will leave any polishing up to you. You don't see it without magnification, it looks shiny and beautiful. The clasp works fine. Please look at the pictures as they are part of the description and show the details better than I can describe. I have taken photos from many different angles so you can see all sides of the cat.
This would make a great gift for anyone who loves cats or collects vintage Chinese jewelry. It is sure to be noticed and will get many compliments for sure. It is such a unique piece.
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