Featured Antique French brooch French 19th century?

Can anyone give some info. What kind of cross is it? I have google hundreds of crosses and found nothing. It doesn't have hallmarks. It has seen rough times.

 

Maybe Maltese ?

 

Well, THAT'S purdy!!! WELCOME, Byzance!!

 

Heraldry: Jerusalem cross also known as cross potent. A cross the equal arms of which end in a bar.

Also, it looks like guilloche enamel.

I'm learning to plink around internet on Android phone and don't know how to make links yet so you'll have to look that up yourself.

Is this piece a locket / brooch combo?

It's very pretty. I love it!

 

It is beautiful ! Did you test it for gold ? It sure looks like gold..

 

This was found in the attic of a old house purchased by my grand-father in the 30's in the South West French city of Pau. Along with the brooch there was a garnet ring which I will post separately and a silver bracelet and pendant with lapis lazuli stones. I was told this brooch was gold with diamonds, rubies and pearls. It passed onto my mum and she gave it to me 2 years ago. The blue base has a crack and a chip sadly. The back show old pin missing and it still has C clasp on hinge. More likely the pin stem was extending beyond the edge of the brooch and the C clasp could swing on the outside then back on the top of the pin.A different pin was put in I believe by my grand-mother.

 

Yes a solar pattern guilloche. The blue is very thick. The brooch is 35mn diameter.

 

It is gorgeous, Byzance. Late 19th century imo, and the pin repair wasn't that much later.

I agree, it looks like a variation on the cross potent, but given the central rays (square?) it probably has a different name.
Greek crosses (also equal arms) sometimes have a central square, but the arms tend to have trefoil ends. Three symbolizes the Holy Trinity.

It isn't the Jerusalem cross, which has five crosses:

 

nice. cross pattée as basic form with the typical end-paws. purple stones might hint towards a Bishop or his environment.
as Pau is near the Spanish border and had a railway line to Canfranc in Spain (sadly closed, still spectacular to follow on the nearby roads) it may be of Spanish origin.
or another possibility is the Italian Order of Maurice and Lazarus that has spikes in the mid as well.

 

What a lovely thing to find. Are the red stones cut en cabochon? My first reaction to them was garnet, but if they're cohabiting with diamonds, may well be rubies. Are there a couple of diamonds missing from the circle at the center. My eyes think they see 2 empty sockets.

In my experience a C clasp on a hinge is indicative of a convertible pin-pendant piece. The new, reoriented pin assembly would be covering any signs of where a bail would have been. Surprised the remains of the original hinge are still there. It makes little sense for the clasp to fold down if the pin cannot be removed. On pieces I have that work like this, the hinge is screwed into the body & can be taken off. See signs of corrosion; maybe frozen in place now.

 

Have you checked for hallmarks? In the brooch is French, it has to have hallmarks, either the eagle‘s head (Paris) or a horse head (provinces), they are usually very small, so difficult to find.
The pearls are demi-pearls, i.e. the pearls were split in the middle.

the brooch seems to have been part of a larger piece.

 

You're right, French marks are tiny. I was also wondering if the mark would have been on the missing pin?
Dutch brooches of the period are often marked on the side of the C-clasp, also tiny marks.

 

Agree with Any Jewelry!
Never seen so thick guilloché! From the side view I first thought it was a lapis piece, before seeing the upside view

 

Neither have I. The entire piece is beautiful quality. And it looks very French to me, they know their enamels.

 

Looks like a bezel set piece of blue glass.

 

Could be, given the height and the beveled edge.

 

Just lovely!.

 

It's Delicious!!!!

 

usually - though not always - every single seperate part of a piece of jewelery is marked, so maybe there is a mark somewhere on the main part of the brooch

 

Yes, I noticed that. Some assayers seemed to be very meticulous, others not so much. Or parts were replaced.

Here's hoping.