Brooch: Persephone's Bouquet

This elegantly carved, pearl and diamond-studded boxwood brooch is the work of Sharon Church, an exceptional jeweler and artist based in Philadelphia, who in 2018 was honored by the Society of North American Goldsmiths with their prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Church creates organic forms that recall underwater creatures, fantastical plants, or imaginary animals. Hand-carved from such natural materials as wood, bone, and horn, her jewelry is frequently ornamented with diamonds to produce a dazzling effect. It is at once powerful and sensual and infused with a symbolic language of growth and decay. The title of this brooch, "Persephone’s Bouquet," refers to the Greek goddess of vegetation, the beautiful Persephone, who was gathering flowers with nymphs when she was abducted by Hades, god of the Underworld. The donor, Helen Williams Drutt English, is a well-known collector, dealer, curator, and educator.