Featured Antique 1900s gold and carved stone cicada brooch, signed Guiraud.

Not eek, beautiful attention to detail.
(Just hope it doesn't come alive while you are wearing it. )

 

Black jade? What colour is it when you hold it up against the light?

 

Kyra, I saw these and thought of you:

https://www.boredpanda.com/circuit-...cebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic

 

I fell in love with it at first sight, big and detailed!
Simple kyratisation, as my open twisted ring could be fixed to the remains of the clasp for resisting the efforts of its use

Provence with the Fredéric Mistral Félibrige movement, which had the cicada for emblem, is a strong possibility.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Félibrige

 

Totally opaque (can only look from the side as it is backed).

 

Wow! These are lovely and clever repurpose of rubbish! Thank you for sharing

 

It is Provençal! If you scroll down this page to 'Cicada brooches', you wil find a gold one by Giraud.
http://www.bijouxregionaux.fr/en/contenu.php?idcontenu=14

And a bit higher on the page I found a fibula I have, which I thought was Maghreb. It isn't, it is north of the Med, also Provençal.

 

I saw this one, the site is a treasure for the eyes and documentation!

 

Right up our alley.

 

Stunning, anti.

 

A friend sent me a picture of another Guiraud cicada, open wings, in silver!
Don't know if it was sold, but I paid mine far cheaper

 

Just imagine how much yours could sell for....

 

A lot of wealth up that alley! See that, of course, kyra is right & it is Guiraud, not Giraud as site has it.

They are all what I would call penannular brooches. I think of fibulae as being essentially shaped more like an archer's bow, with lots of elaborations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibula_(brooch)

 

I think of fibula as both. Did you see the Tara brooch in the same article?
In ethnic jewellery penannular brooches are also called fibula. They serve the same purpose, fastening a cloak or other piece of clothing, rather than being decorative.

 

Will make mental note that the term is used broadly. In my mind, fibula covers a range of shapes, & this bit snipped without attribution from Internet search results captures my understanding:

The fibula developed in a variety of shapes, but all were based on the safety-pin principle.

Penannulars are their own particular beast. Guess I object to not using the more precise word when one exists.

Is that a synonym for pseudo-penannular?

 

I have been doing some digging, because I only came across the name of this specific shape a few weeks ago, here on Antiquers.
I am used to English Ethnic jewellery terms, where the term fibula is also used for these fibula shapes.
Apparently the term penannular came into fashion during the 19th century Celtic Revival Movement of the British Isles. It focuses on the shape rather than the function.
We silly Continentals missed the Celtic Revival, and stuck to naming the thing for the function. So the French site, being French, was right to make the distinction between the function of a fibula (penannular brooch to you ) and a (decorative) brooch, like the cicada brooches, on one and the same page.

A French seller on Ruby Lane also missed Celtic Revival Movement of the British Isles:
https://www.rubylane.com/item/759489-boucle1/Antique-Silver-14k-Yellow-Gold-Fibula?search=1

Oops, a British seller did as well, and from a Celtic region too, Cornwall. Apparently it is a matter of choice:
https://www.rubylane.com/item/896152-001539/Antique-French-Provencal-Fibula-brooch-800

Another French fibula reference, Berber fibulae/fibulas:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibule_berbère

An English Ethnic jewellery forum, where the term fibula is also used in English:
http://ethnicjewels.ning.com/main/search/search?q=fibula
This is a fibula on their site:

http://ethnicjewels.ning.com/photo/mzab-fibula

Here is the Dutch page on the Dutch Dorestad fibula, which is a disc rather than the arch or the part-ring shape:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibula_van_Dorestad


To give you an idea of the construction, here is another one with a pic of the back, this fibula is Belgian, same period as the one above:


Don't get me wrong, I do understand that you, as a native speaker of English, would prefer the term you know. But please accept the fact that not everyone is acquainted with the influence the Celtic Revival had on the English language, and French, Dutch, and other Continentals still use the old terms, as do North Africans.
And please accept the fact that our historians are right to use the old terms, because of the simple fact that we have a different history. So the Provençal fibula will have to remain a Provençal fibula.

I will try to remember the sensitivity regarding the preference for the name of the shape when I come across another part-ring-shaped fibula on this site. Penannular!
(You will probably have to remind me. )
But, to avoid confusion for anyone who comes across posts of non-British Isles Celtic jewellery, I will still use the word fibula for those items which are internationally known as fibula, like the ones in the links I posted, and in the earlier French link.

 

Kyratisation done on the big dragonfly!

 

Perfect, kyra.

 

Lovely, @kyratango !