Goldfields Foliate Locket Brooch with Green Paste Detailing

• Circa - A Latin term meaning 'about', often used in the antique trade to give an approximate date for the piece, usually considered to be five years on either side of the circa year. Thus, circa 1900 means the piece was made about 1900, probably between 1895 and 1905. The expression is sometimes abbreviated to c.1900.
• Foliate - Decorated with leaves or leaf-like forms.
• Paste / Rhinestone / Diamante - Paste (or rhinestone or diamante) is the name given to a coloured glass composition used for imitation gemstones, or to imitation gemstones made of glass.
  
  Although the technique of glassmaking had been known for thousands of years, but it wasn't until a lead glass with similar optical properties to diamonds were invented by a German jeweller working in Paris (either "Stras" or 'Strasser") in the early 18th century that "paste" gemstones became popular.
  
  There was no social stigma attached to wearing imitation stones, and they were worn in situations where highway robbery was a possibility. The 18th century settings were of very high quality, equivilent to real gemstone jewellery.
  
  In the nineteeth century the quality of paste jewellery declined and it has remained the poor cousin to genuine gemstones ever since.
• Oviform /ovoid - The outline loosely resembling the shape of an egg.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• brooches, design or type - portrait and locket 507
• brooches, floral design - floral design, gold mounted 880
• brooches, other - with locket 753
• miners / mining / goldfields - jewellery, brooches, Australian 272