A Modern Design Jewellery Treasure Trove In Waiting?

Despite having a great many brooches in my collection - all costume for budget reasons - I’m always on the lookout for more. Not only because I love wearing them and they always provide a great talking point (brooches have kinda become my ‘thing’), but because, being me, I’m always on the lookout for a bargain. I visited one of my most beloved sources, Gillian Horsup at Alfie’s Antiques Market in London recently and was delighted to find that she had put aside an interesting brooch for me that I hadn’t seen before.

She chose it for me as the design is modern, makes a statement, and is clear and visibly readable on camera. After over 35 years in the business, Gillian has a great eye of course, but also lends her costume jewellery to shoots for Vogue and other top fashion magazines, so she knows. The material is ceramic, porcelain in fact, which is highly unusual. The mark on the back reveals it to be by Rosenthal, and there’s an illegible designer’s or artist’s signature underneath, which is a feature typical of their notable ’studio line’ range. I was a little apprehensive of the inexpensive pin being glued into place, but it was done well, and how else could it be done?!

Apart from the name and obvious quality, what appeals to me about this one is that it reminds me of the desirable designs I saw as I was growing up in the 1980s & 90s. And expensive designs too! Their geometric patterns and monochromes - or clashing bright colours - and quirky forms were derived from the work of Postmodern movement designers such as Ettore Sottsass, (of the Memphis Group) Alessandro Mendini, Michael Graves, Charles Jencks, and Robert Venturi. Serious, but jolly and quirky at the same time.

Sitting on the tube home, I realised that there was another reason why I bought it immediately after only a little thought. I think that this area is a real, unrecognised ‘sleeper’ waiting to emerge. And here’s why…