This is a large and lovely vintage brooch by Sandor, known for his enamel florals – a huge bouquet of flowers with enameled petals and rhinestone centres.
The flowers are on flexible wires, randomly arranged, and the petals are baby blue streaked with cornflower blue. The enamel is loosely applied to leave glints of goldtone around the petal edges – a deliberate effect, not wear. The centre rhinestones are a deep sapphire blue and securely prong set. They are not foiled so their sparkle is delicate rather than brash.
The flower wires are bunched together beneath the flowers and threaded through an arrangement of three interlaced circles in two shades of blue, matching the petals. The circles have strong echoes of Art Deco and the overall style and construction suggest this is an early Sandor brooch dating to the early 1940s.
All the metal is a warmly gilded base metal and the brooch is fitted with a safety clasp. It is marked “SANDOR” on the everse and is 9.7 cm (3.75″) high by 7.5 cm (3″) wide.
The brooch is in very good vintage condition. On close inspection there are just a few very minor blemishes on the enamel, some tiny dark spots on the back and just one wire (peeping through the top left circle) is a little silvery. Otherwise the enamel and gilding are intact with virtually no noticeable wear. The only issue is that the tiny pin in the hinge is not fully locked in place so the pin stem has some sideways as well as up-and-down movement, but it works perfectly well and holds securely.
