size: 55 x 12mm weight: 7.86 grams material: 14k yellow gold gemstones: natural rose cut diamonds 4mm - 3mm Notes from the Curator This bar brooch was fashioned with two distinct gold tones—yellow throughout the body and scrolling terminals, with black enamel accents tracing the central cluster—a format widely adopted during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods when jewelers sought to heighten contrast and dimensionality. The rose-cut diamonds, which originated in India in the fifteenth century and became European goldsmiths' standard by the 1520s, are worked here in an open-prong setting that allows each faceted dome to catch and diffuse light softly. Early rose cuts were shaped from rough that naturally lent itself to the flat-bottomed, dome-topped design, with triangular facets adding scintillation. The brooch's narrow 12-millimetre height and 55-millimetre span mark it as a bar form intended to fasten a high collar or lapel seam, and the scrolling finials recall the ironwork motifs that flourished between 1890 and 1910.