In the early post-war years jewellery began to be accepted as an art form or ‘wearable art’, expressing the character of the wearer as much as that of the designer. In liberating themselves from the conventions of traditional jewellery, designers looked back to the modernist principles of the Bauhaus and to earlier avant-garde art movements such as Surrealism, Cubism and Constructivism. This allowed them to create unique designs, often with a sculptural quality. Jewels of this period are often abstract in design.

This brooch was designed by the Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro who began making jewellery in the 1950s (as did his brother, the sculptor Gio Pomodoro). This interest in jewellery was part of a wider, international trend amongst artists - including Calder, Picasso and Braque - that resulted in the creation of some of the most interesting and innovative jewellery from the middle decades of the century.Arnaldo Pomodoro studied sculpture, architecture and stage design. He is foremost renowned as a sculptor, however, for fourteen years he designed jewellery as a sideline. He applied the same aesthetic principles to his jewellery as in his sculpture, either random decoration or a systematic arrangement of mechanical parts.