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I have a silver pebble brooch which has no hallmark and I would normally presume it it to be Victorian. However, it has the imprint PATENT on the clasp.
Does anyone know when this was first used?
Thanks

That marking is on the clasp which was patent in the late 1880's. The piece appears to be a late Victorian, Scottish Pebble Brooch. While many of the earliest pieces were too light to require hall marking, a piece made like this one should have been submitted for assey.

Thankyou!!!

Hi,

As I understand it, much of these later pieces were not Scottish made. They were a product of the tourist industry. The advent of the railways, the rise of middle class wealth, coupled with Queen Victoria useing Balmoral as a summer residence, made Scotland the fashionable place to be from the mid to late 1800's.
The locals, of course, took advantage of this summer migration, making and selling a varity of souvenirs. The pebble jewelry was extremely popular, so popular, that local producers could not keep up with the demand for them. It did not take long for the Birmingham manufacturers, and others, to fill the gap in supplies.
One of the biggest clues that exposes a non-Scottish piece is the use of stones that were alien to Scotland.
I'm not good with stones, so I'll let others decide whether all these ones are native to Scotland.

Trev.

As regards the stamped letters PATENT some of the earliest are on silver buckle chapes.

Patent No 1401 was for Grays of Bond Street, taken out in 1783, followed by William Eleys Patent of 1784 - no 1423.

I am not sure what date the numbers run from, but these two were in the first 2000 numbers registered,in the UK although the concept of a patent, granted by the Monarch goes back centuries earlier. Does any one know what British patent No 1 was ?

Often you see the word PATENT on late eighteen century buckle chapes, often with a makers name - and there is no actual registered patent.
ALLENS PATENT , JACKSONS PATENT, IONESS PATENT (Jones) ,YARDLEYS PATENT , COOKES PATENT and PUGGS PATENT being examples. I think many regarded the word "Patent" to mean novel device .

YARDLEYS PATENT is somewhat ironic - its a direct copy of William Eley's - and Yardley was successfully sued for infringement by Eley. But the other bucklemakers appear to have ganged up on Eley, and got his patent actually repealed in what looks like a real travesty of justice.

Thank you both - that's all very interesting info.
I'm not sure what the stones are either.... so any help appreciated.

Trev is correct, most of these pieces were not made in Scotland, and many were sold completely unmarked ( I have seen some in a sort of cheap plated brass with glass "stones"). A lot was sold to the tourist trade. The quality varied greatly with some very fine pieces, correctly marked and beautifully set with finely cut pieces of agate to form a pattern and often incorporating a cairngorn into the design. The silver is usually covered in engraving, often with Scottish devices.

This brooch appears to be middle of the road, so to speak. The stones appear to be, from the upper right quadrant (clockwise): Red moss agate, Bloodstone, Jasper and either Botswana agate or Mother-of Pearl (to tell the difference agate looks the same from any angle, MOP will change and flash light as it is moved). The engraving looks a bit average in that they made little effort to have the pattern enhance the idea of interlaced ribbons and it has nothing in the design to tie it to Scotland.

All-in-all it is a pretty pin. Is it of a size to have been worn as a cloak clasp (fairly large) or more demure in size?

I would agree with the stones in the bottom half of the brooch being Bloodstone and Jasper, but without actually seeing the stones I would consider Agate from East Coast of Scotland for top left hand and possibly a Jasper for the top right hand stones. They could be all Scottish gemstones.

Hello, it's definitely not mother of pearl, so thanks for further suggestions!

I also meant to say its quite large about 2 1/4 inches by 1 5/8th inches

Hi,

This advertisment from 1880 proves that the Birmingham silversmiths were not backward in seeing the opportunities presented by the tourist boom in Scotland.



Trev.