Featured Mystery pin - where is it from?

The metals are probably gold and sterling, with bitty "seed" pearls. I bought this ages ago but have never been able to figure out where it came from. It looked mid-century at first, but now I'm wondering if it's not Russian and a lot older. The clasp is decidedly funky, and it was only this morning that I looked at the back of one of my Russian paper mache Christmas pins and saw something similar. @Any Jewelry , @Bronwen - any ideas? It doesn't have a mark to bless itself with, but it came from a local fine jeweler for not much.(they gave away gift cards for some promotion or other and I bought this.) I bought it for that funky clasp, and for the price tag naturally.

The images aren't that great; there's snow moving in.

 

Evict it!

 

Reminds me of turn of the century lingerie pins

 

Somewhat, but it's quite a bit too large for that; it's about 2.5 inches long.

 

Spent some time first trying to remember where among my 'holdings' I see similar findings, then digging those pieces out & examining them. They are all shawl & bar pins, all things that are much longer end to end than they measure top to bottom. The bar pins may have served to hold a high collar snugged up & to have been functional as well as decorative the way the shawl (or lingerie) pins also are. You do not say how big this is?

I do not have anything with a clasp quite this ornate but a couple are more than simple Cs. Afraid the pins themselves speak to when (c. Edwardian) but maybe not so much to where. (Most of my pieces are British.) If your pin also dates to that era, it would have been quite modern looking for the time, so maybe 1920s?

 

You nipped this in while I was writing. So yes, not lingerie, although that was a plausible idea without info on size.

 

The other person to ask is @kyratango .

 

I just dug it out again and measured. It's 45mm long - just shy of 2 inches. I typed 2.5 from memory without digging out pin or ruler. It is however about the thickness of a modern safety pin; the pearl is 2mm across and it's the thickest point. It's twice the size of a lingerie pin. although I could see it holding a blouse closed.

If we could pin, ahem, that clasp down it would probably solve the mystery.

 

The clasp is just a "fancy" safety pin clasp,there are a number of variations.

 

Gorgeous bar brooch, evely. There is an Art Deco influence in the design, and those two seed pearls are perfectly placed.
I always love the subtlety of bar brooches, buy them, and never wear them because they are too subtle.
Yes, it does look like silver and gold to me too. Pity it isn't marked, but I think the fineness of the silver could be 900 or higher.

Even better if we could 'pin' the hinge down. That type of hinge is 1930s and later. In this case I think the pin is ca 1940.

You can find old-style clasps on brooches from Russia, just like you can on brooches from the Middle East and parts of the Mediterranean. Those brooches will often be more recent than the clasp suggests, and the other elements like style, hinge, manufacturing technique will help to date them.

 

A pretty "gift card" buy! As Bronwen, I'd say Edwardian because of the ornate safety clasp; up to 1920 because of the general look of hinge, and the knife edge shape, the seed pearls are rather tiny button pearls due to their flattened top
As Any Jewelry, I eventually buy bar pins but don't wear them

 

Evely, could you post a picture of the back, so we can see the width of the hinge?

 

These are about the best I can do for now. I even got one of the top. Knife edge is about the size of it. There does seem to be a mark; it's all but illegible, but there's a K in there somewhere.

 

Thanks. Yes, it is a type of hinge that was introduced in the 1930s.
I cropped and edited the marks photo a bit, and turned it round. The first three seem to be 925, so sterling silver, as you thought:

 

Ah, from pic of the top, it is not a knife edge shape, as I thought it was

 

Thought of this thread when I saw this illustration in a scholarly paper. The brooch is dated to the 7th century: