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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 1677290, member: 2844&quot;]Welcome, Bryce.</p><p>It is absolutely beautiful, thank you so much for showing us. Your wife is a lucky lady.</p><p><br /></p><p>The style period is Biedermeier, a German/Continental term for the period of ca 1840-1860.</p><p>This specific style with those round very textured stippled petals and swirls is attributed to Austria and southern Germany.</p><p>I have some more modest brooches in the same style, and researching them I have found both Schwäbisch Gmünd (S Germany) and Salzburg (Austria) mentioned as manufacturing towns for these beauties.</p><p>Although the culture of these neighbouring regions is closely related, my feeling is yours was made in Salzburg, it has the exuberance of Austro-Hungarian jewellery.</p><p><br /></p><p>evelyb has a point when she mentions the possibility of good quality rolled gold. One of my brooches tests as gold, but is marked 800 for .800 silver fineness.</p><p>Obviously the bird on the locket is silver, to make it stand out from the floral background.</p><p>On some parts of your locket, like the petals in the detail below, it looks like there is tarnished silver showing through the gold. It is still a very good quality piece though, stunning workmanship, and both silver and gold were expensive at the time.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]235687[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>A bit about stunning workmanship, it is also &#039;workwomanship&#039;. In Schwäbisch Gmünd these pieces were made by families. The delicate filigree was often made by women and girls, the components were assembled by the men. It was probably the same in Salzburg.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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