Brooch

This striking brooch features a large, oval cabochon turquoise at its center. The stone is set within a sculptural gold surround of foliage, flowers, and C-scrolls, into which four small diamonds are set as centers of the floral motifs. Three baroque pearls are suspended below with gold link pendants, each accented with a small diamond. The gold surface is chased and burnished to achieve varied color and texture. A hinged loop attached to the top allows the brooch to be worn as a pendant as well.

Although unmarked, this brooch is attributed on the basis of style, technique, and materials to F. Walter Lawrence, an innovative and gifted jeweler who worked briefly in Newark, New Jersey, before establishing himself in New York City. His career began in the 1880s and continued until his death in 1929. His varied and eclectic designs reflect the prevailing sensibilities of the Arts & Crafts Movement: exquisite handcraftsmanship, preference for semi-precious colored stones, unusual materials, and reliance on nature as a design source. This brooch also manifests another distinguishing characteristics of Lawrence’s work: the use of baroque pearls. A number of period newspaper and magazine accounts credit Lawrence with pioneering a new style of jewelry featuring baroque pearls from the Mississippi River. Lawrence’s work was featured in many Arts & Crafts exhibitions throughout the early twentieth century, and he exhibited twenty-seven pieces of jewelry at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.