Brooch

Mrs Anne Hull Grundy donated a large collection of jewellery to Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. This was one of a number of donations she made to museums in this country. She was concerned that each collection she gave to a museum should suit its manufacturing history and existing collection, but she also wished to donate examples of work not already represented in our collections. This bat brooch represents a piece or French Art Nouveau. The silver brooch has been placed in a sulphur solution to blacken it, then polished to take the sulphur blackening off the high parts of the brooch. This process is called ‘oxidisation’; it is often used to give depth and contrast to three-dimensional silverwork.