Featured Hand painted mop brooch

Would this be from Italy? I bought it today along with a cameo. It’s had a bit of moisture damage but it doesn’t really detract from it being a bit of an eyeful.
Thanks for any info. Sorry for the light reflections. Think it’s brass, 2x 2 and a half inches.

 

Better pic.

 

It is lovely, Houseful. It looks like a British castle though, maybe a take on Castle Urquhart, in Scotland?

 

Or maybe Kilchurn Castle on Loch Awe?


https://blosslynspage.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/ruin-castles-of-loch-awe-scotland/

 

Did you test it ? I think it is gold filled or maybe gold rolled..

 

Could be AJ, I’m probably thinking Italian because I bought it with a lava cameo. Couldn’t resist it for £30.

 

Not tested it yet, I’ll do it tomorrow with the cameo.

 

I can imagine.

 

I even did a round trip of 80miles to buy them!! I’m not telling my mother that I have added to the hoard. It’s my Xmas present to myself…

 

Yay!

 

That pin is Victorian too, btw. I'd bet good money on it being a Scottish castle, Scotland-themed jewelry being a hot item at the later end of the Victorian era. The castle looks reverse-painted too, just to make it even better.

 

I wonder if the MOP is a replacement since the bezel is bent out of shape.

 

Doesn't look it from the back.

 

How would you do this with MOP?

It has been crimped in at a number of spots. I think it's more likely the MOP plaque came loose or fell out altogether & the crimping is just to secure it.

 

could be on one of the Northern Italian lakes. or on the small Adria islands.
typical would-be castles that were all the rage during the 19th c. . some were being made by the Austrian gentry when most of the Trieste and Fiume regions were still Austrian.

 

I thought the MOP was under glass. Guess not.

 

The only way for a bezel to look like that is prying the bezel open and not knowing how to burnish it back into place.

 

I assumed it is not, based on other painted MOP pieces I have seen, but admit from these photos I can't say with certainty. No reason a reverse painting on glass could not be backed with MOP.

 

Then someone was very lucking in finding something that could be made to fit that frame so well.

 

What's going on with the guard chain? The pin has a blunt tip. Was it meant to be put through a buttonhole?