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This colourful vintage figural brooch features a fluttering parrot in enamel and marcasite, echoing the popular bird-of-paradise motif. The enamel is pastel green with pink and red accents, and a touch of orange, with a marcasite trim along the wing edges and a single bezel-set stone for the eye. The metal is a silver-tone and the brooch is fitted with a rabbit-eared rollover safety clasp.
Marcasite and enamel figural brooches have been popular, off and on, since the 1920s. I believe this particular brooch dates to the late 1950s, early 1960s – a cheaper version of similar brooches sold by Alice Caviness at that time.
Dimensions: 6.3 cm high by 3.8 cm wide (2.5″ x 1.5″)
Marks: Unmarked
Condition: Good overall vintage condition. There is enamel loss and crazing, especially on the right-hand tail plume, but as the underlying metal is silver it tones in with the silvery metal elsewhere.
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