Mystery pin - .950 silver and a clasp even I don't know

Where did this come from? The colors look like enamel with a little lapis inlay. The clasp is a total mystery to me. Hopefully not to you. The whole thing is about an inch long.

 

Is the white portion enamel or mother of pearl?

 

That safety pin style is known to me.....but I'm having trouble recalling a proper dating...

 

Not MoP, but what it actually is ...dunno.

 

I think it may be French.

 

Thanks Bear. That wouldn't surprise me.

 

It's the colours, the use of a lily, which is tres francais and that odd clasp.

 

The lapis threw me a bit; I don't generally think of the French using it. And the clasp is just weird; I've seen it before, but not on anything good.

 

My thought also on the colors.

Speaking of France and the lily, I had always thought the fleur-de-lys/fleur-de-lis was a lily, but in the last few years have heard arguments that the fleur-de-lis was an iris. Do you think there is any credence the original was suppose to be an iris? Here's a webpage about the debate.
http://www.heraldica.org/topics/fdl.htm

In 1964 while touring the gardens of Versailles, if memory serves, the guide pointed out the design of one of the many sections that was in the shape of an iris, the country's fleur-de-lis??

--- Susan

 

If that is .950 silver and made in France, it should have the French .950 hallmark.
http://www.silvercollection.it/frenchhallmarks.html

--- Susan

 

Here's one version....

In 1948, the Government of Canada asked the provinces to choose a floral emblem. Although the blue flag iris had long been considered the symbol of French Canadians, the Quebec government instead chose the Madonna lily (Lilium candidum) as the floral emblem to reflect the flower seen on the Quebec flag, chosen the same year. The flag was composed of a white cross on a blue background with a white fleur-de-lis in each corner. Since “lis” is French for lily, the authorities assumed that the fleur-de-lis was a lily flower. But they were wrong.


Fleur-de-lis

The fleur-de-lis symbol actually represents a heraldic iris. This is easily seen by the symbol’s shape: drooping sepals (called falls) and upright petals (standards), nothing like the trumpet shape of lilies known in Europe at the time. There are many theories as to why the symbol become known as a fleur-de-lis rather than a fleur-d’iris, One is that Louis VII, King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180, used the symbol prominently on his flag, clothing and shield, leading to it being called the “flor de Lois” (as it was pronounced at the time), a term which later evolved into fleur-de-lis.