RARE Antique Chinese Kingfisher Blue Feather BroochAntique pin is marked "China" on the reverse, is made ...

RARE Antique Chinese Kingfisher Blue Feather Brooch
Antique pin is marked "China" on the reverse, is made primarily of tested silver and copper, is approx 1 3/4" wide and retains most of the feather application. Piece has different shades of blue, along with pink and green colors. Brooch has a "C-Clasp" closure.

Kingfisher hair jewelry was designed, in China, as a mark of opulence to denote one's wealth and status. Birds' feathers furnish the iridescent blue color on the jewelry. Few collectors know how difficult it is/was to make the delicate blue jewelry or how easily it is damaged. The metalsmith places thin strips of hot gilt copper on a flat outline of the finished piece. It is cooled, cleaned and polished, and glue is put into the empty spaces created by the strips. Then, using tweezers, small pieces of the fragile, shaped feathers are put on the glue.
The feathers tend to rot over time, so few of the pre-1600 pieces remain. Most similar 20th-century jewelry is made with blue enamel, not feathers, because of efforts to protect the kingfisher.

Condition:

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