Brooch-pendant in the form of a bird, enamelled gold set with turquoise, coral, pearls and ruby. Designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and made by Carlo Giuliano, London 1885-95.

Gold brooch-pendant in the form of a bird in profile on an olive branch. The bird has a cabochon ruby eye, and is set with cabochon coral and turquoise, and with pearls. The tree is heart-shaped and has translucent green enamel leaves and translucent red enamel berries (some enamel loss). Plain gold back with brooch pin and hinged pendant fitting.

Given by Geoffrey and Caroline Munn through Art Fund

The brooch follows a design made by Burne-Jones for his daughter, Margaret, in about 1884. Related sketches are in the British Museum and the V&A (the latter illustrated by Charlotte Gere and Geoffrey Munn, Artists' Jewellery: Pre-Raphaelite to Arts and Crafts, Woodbridge, 1989, p. 134). His wife, Georgie, remembered him working him on the design and seeing it through to execution. In addition to Margaret’s brooch, which was shown at the exhibition of her father’s work at the New Gallery in 1892, it is known that another early example was given to Laura Tennant, who married Arthur Lyttelton in 1885 and died in 1886.

There appear to be at least four surviving examples of the brooch. Three bear the mark of Carlo Giuliano who died in 1895. One of these three was formerly in the possession of Margaret’s daughter, Claire Mackail. Another belonged to the art journalist and critic Harry Quilter (1851-1907; Sotheby's, London, 21 June 1990, lot 55). Geoffrey and Caroline Munn’s brooch is the third. It was published by Charlotte Gere and Geoffrey Munn in Artists’ Jewels: Pre-Raphaelite to Arts and Crafts (Woodbridge, 1989, p. 137). It was lent to Edward Burne-Jones, Victorian Artist-Dreamer, shown in 1998-9 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and the Musée d’Orsay. A fourth brooch cannot be earlier than 1896 because it bears the mark of Carlo Giuliano’s sons, Carlo and Arthur Giuliano (exhibited in Artists' Jewelry: Pre-Raphaelite to Arts and Crafts, Wartski, London, March 1989, no. 121; Judith H. Siegel Collection, Sotheby's, New York, 6 December 2006, lot 126).

Charlotte Gere and Geoffrey Munn (op. cit., p. 134) illustrate heart-shaped wash studies of late medieval mosaics of stylised olive trees and flowers made for plate 4 of John Ruskin's Stones of Venice (vol. III, 1853) with the comment: 'these medieval mosaics may well have been the source of inspiration for the bird brooches which Sir Edward Burne-Jones asked Giuliano to make for him. Whether or not the artist remembered them from his visit to Venice in 1862 will never be known but the fact that Burne-Jones owned a copy of The Stones of Venice can hardly be doubted'.

The brooch is in the form of a spirited singing bird in turquoise, coral and pearl with a ruby eye in a heart-shaped olive tree with enamelled leaves. It follows a design made by Burne-Jones for his daughter, Margaret, in about 1884. Related sketches are in the British Museum and the V&A. His wife, Georgie, remembered him working him on the design and seeing it through to execution. In addition to Margaret’s brooch, which was shown at the exhibition of her father’s work at the New Gallery in 1892, it is known that another early example was given to Laura Tennant, who married Arthur Lyttelton in 1885 and died in 1886.

M.11-2015