Antique "Wishbone" Gold Brooch with Turquoises, Great Britain c. 1900

There is an old custom in English-speaking countries: at a feast, often at Thanksgiving or Christmas, two people pull apart the forked collarbone of the turkey until it breaks. Whoever gets the bigger piece gets to make a wish. This is why the bone is called a "wishbone" or "merrythought". This tradition can be traced back to the 17th century and soon made the wishbone a popular symbol of good luck, comparable to horseshoes or shamrocks. In the Victorian era, the motif found its way into the art of goldsmithing and became part of so-called "novelty jewelry". We also encounter such a wishbone in this brooch, but in a particularly charming variation. It has a three-leaf clover in its center, which holds three natural cabochon-cut turquoises and a beautiful old-cut diamond in the center. This combines two lucky symbols: Wishbone and cloverleaf! We date the brooch to around 1900 and for comparison, we have reproduced a page from a 1904 catalog of B. & H. B. Kent, Diamond Merchants and Jewelers from Toronto. It can also be viewed online and offered numerous variations on this theme to interested customers. Browse through the pages, it is exciting to see how many different and yet similar versions of this design idea were available at the time. The brooch is made from the typical British alloy of fifteen carat gold (corresponding to a fineness of 625/000). We encounter this alloy in many Victorian and Edwardian pieces of jewellery, but it was only used until 1932, after which its use was banned. We discovered this gorgeous piece in the south of England.

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