Featured Brooch with rollercoaster tracks?

Well, that’s what it looks like to me. I want to gift it to a college friend for Christmas because it will go with anything and we had a funfair where we went to artschool but I can’t decide on possible age, what the style would be called. Sterling Foreign doesn’t help. About 2ins across.
I’d like to give her some info about it please, if anyone has any ideas. Thank you.

 

It looks 1920s German to me. Not really classic Art Deco, but Modernist fits any bill when it comes to the period.

 

Its a nice brooch!
This style screams sixties to me, but I like your rollercoaster track description more
These were made everywhere in that period. I have seen many German ones that look alike but someone more knowledgeable will chime in soon and shine their light.

 

Ahh well, 20 s that is!
I wouldn't have thought it to be that early

 

The 'foreign' mark is Germany trying very hard not to be Germany, after WW I. 'Foreign' was a way to get German items sold in the UK etc. We also get items marked like that here.

The construction of the inside of the 'tracks' reminds me of 1920s Theodor Fahrner jewellery.
It also has that quality, and Theodor Fahrner also used separate tags, but this isn't signed, so not Fahrner.

 

Any Jewelry, thank you very much for the words of wisdom. Indeed, it reminds of TF.
Oh well, if the German jewelry will shut its mouth and just be pretty, I m ok with it being German

 

German jewellery is very good at looking pretty, and I've never heard it speak.

 

Yes, that "FOREIGN" stamp dates it as antique or close to it. I will leave the exact dating to others who know more, but I recall posting a question either here or on the old Ebay boards about a wooden box (I think might have been Asian) with the stamp "Foreign" and date given was something like 1920's.

What a great gift for your friend. Nice size at 2" across as well. I think it's a lovely piece that would work with a lot of outfits. Even has a bit of a Modernist look.

 

Thank you very much AJ.
I initially wondered if the Foreign mark might be Japanese as I think they marked some ceramics with that because of WW2 but this didn’t feel at all Japanese.
I’ve run out of Scandinavian pieces to give her which she really likes, I do hope she likes this and starts off an interest in German jewellery for her.

 

Some German jewellery is closely related to Scandi, and the Modernist look of this brooch is certainly in the same vein. It is a quality piece, a very nice gift.

 

LOL! If I were you I'd hesitate before using the "rollercoaster" image when describing it to your friend. (She said, giggling) Try Lover's Knot -- seems less chancy somehow.

 

I'm going to throw a spanner in here. Foreign was also used after WW2. Not just Germany but also Japan and other Axis nations.

That almost triskelion shape was big in 50s and 60s costume ppieces.

 

New word to me! And I love new words.

I was going to say trefoil.

 

Trefoil is also good!

I've either had or have a brooch with that plaque on it.... hm. Hoard hunt time.

 

I think it's post-War too; the style is all wrong for the 20s but dead right for the 50s.

 

I’ll tell her it’s modernist.
Thanks to all.

 

I only remember those heavy glossy triskelions from 1970s German jewellery. My mother had one, I think by Grossé, which she bought after we returned from Australia. That must have been 1975 at the earliest. Germany had already been marking their pieces as German for at least 15 years by then.
It had a later hinge too, not this delicate hinge.

That is safest, whichever the period was.

 

I've found the particular shaped one I had in mind, let me see if I can get some kind of photo.

Annoyingly, I don't have a photo of the back of the one I had with the Foreign Sterling mark on it. Phoo.

 

OK, this is the silver one I had with FOREIGN STERLING on the back. Didn't photgraph the back. Bother.

And the I think sixties one I was on about. It's much more gold than it looks, the light is rubbish today.

 

Ver pretty. Those were also made in the 20s and 30s. It does look German, my mother had German leaf earrings with the same type of filigree.

Yes, that is 60s. Brutalist influence in the texture.