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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 315317, member: 5833&quot;]Assuming the brooch &amp; the symbol are contemporary is like concluding from a Confederate battle flag on a US car bumper that the American Civil War is still in progress.&nbsp; (Well, it is, but that&#039;s a different matter.)&nbsp; There&#039;s no reason the symbolism of the brooch can&#039;t refer to something well in the past.&nbsp; However, also no reason the brooch does not express something that was current or in the recent past when it was made.</p><p><br /></p><p>It would not have to be a mourning brooch; it could be a sweetheart brooch.&nbsp; I suspect at some point it has come open &amp; been put back together upside down.&nbsp; Pin stems mounted horizontally usually go so that they would insert from right to left.&nbsp; In that case Aureliel&#039;s photo would be right side up.&nbsp; Pins mounted vertically run top to bottom, as Bakersgma proposes.&nbsp; It does not appear the contents themselves would fit in the compartment if rotated 90 degrees, but the only way the drum in the middle of the assemblage looks right to me requires the pin to run bottom to top:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]104569[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The drum is prominent, think the drumsticks are crossed behind it, as are a long gun &amp; a cannon and, I think, a flag &amp; a pennant with a battle axe rising vertically in the center.&nbsp; Oh, &amp; maybe the bell of a bugle aimed downward?&nbsp; Strike me as generic military symbols.&nbsp; The prominent placement of the drum could be a compositional choice rather than holding any meaning, i.e., not the emblem of a drum corps, just useful in covering up all that crisscrossing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cameos I own with a vertical pin all seem to come from roughly the 1st third of the 19th century.&nbsp; Possible the brooch was made then, originally held a hair memento, which was replaced later with this.</p><p><br /></p><p>Army wife/sweetheart/widow, not naval:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]104570[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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