Featured A Recent Find: Two 18th century(?) Jewels Reunited (actually not really)

How on earth did I not see this!
Wow that is an amazing find. Double find even!
The upper part and the lower part match very well, it doesn't really matter they started life separately.
In fact, these upper parts were sometimes even made to be worn with different jewels.
I have one with a 'watch hook' on it, so you could easily hang any pendant on it.
What is a bit unusual in your find, -apart from finding these separately- is that these are both gold. These are more commonly found in silver, sometimes with a gold layer applied to the back.
The upper part is 19th century. I would love to see the back of your cross and brooch though.
No marks on them?

 

so this says mid 19th century

 

Thank you for these information! I just had the pics of the back. The brooch pin is a later conversion. I've searched the database of VA and these crosses with very similar looks are usually dated either late 18th c to mid 19th c, so don't really know what the determinant is!And many dealers are selling them as 18th c. Could it have something to do with the metal?

 

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O382390/cross-unknown/
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O382391/pendant-unknown/
Two similar crosses from V&A if you're interested!

 

Shamster, thanks for the picture.
No, gold and silver were both used in the same period.
The fact is, anyone can claim something is 18th century but I haven't seen any proof of these crosses being 18th century yet.
Here is a gold one (not mine, its book piece), which was claimed to be 18th century but the marks later made it clear its from 1832-1833.
Some people may argue 1832-1833 is Georgian though
It doesn't really matter, does it? its an amazing piece of jewelry, no matter which exact date it was made

 

The brooch part would have originally had two strips of gold at the back, so a chain or ribbon could have passed through to be worn on.
Here is a picture of the back of 2 of mine.
You can see the one with the watch hook,
On which I hang all sorts of pendants

 

Yes you're right! It's even more charming when they have some mystery of time with them Thank you, I've learnt a lot! And wow those hooks are clever，mine's damaged so I only pin them on a chain with pendant in the middle so that they could be worn together

 

I think people get confused with the dating because they don't realise that regional jewellery often lags a few decades behind fashionable jewellery.

Most British consider the period from 1714 until the reign of Victoria, starting in 1837, to be Georgian.
British period terminology can be confusing. Whereas we in Belgium and the Netherlands tend to divide periods into half or quarter centuries, making things clear without delving into the chronology of rulers, they have a less precise terminology based on royal reigns.
They do skip the occasional royal though, because the last George died in 1830, after the Georges came William IV, who reigned for seven years.

 

Some Brits don't consider William IV to be a Georgian monarch. Always confused me, because he was the son of George III and brother of George IV. I've never been able to pinpoint any major stylistic changes in that period either.

 

He is probably something of a forgotten king.

 

Very much so. A short reign in between two of the longest in history, and a brother who was notorious in his day. He's most famous for swearing to stay alive long enough to keep his sister in-law from being regent. Which he did, if barely.