Mary 1st replica brooch pin, Queen of England

Mary 1st replica brooch pin

I have made this brooch with antique gold and brass settings in multi filigree layers. I added antique style figures and hand painted these with gold and white enamel detail. Another layer creates the lion head elements to the top and bottom. Building up the ouch in further layers I then add a black diamond crystal.
Diamonds tend to look black in Tudor portraits because the artists rendered them in silver pigments which have tarnished over time. For this reason I had the option of a clear diamond crystal or a black one as so often seen, but I have gone for the black diamond as a midway compromise.
To the bottom of the brooch I add a Grade AAA naturally cultured freshwater pearl.

I looked at several portraits for this piece, including the following: Queen Mary I by Unknown artist oil on panel, 1597-1618 Primary Collection NPG 4980
Mary I by Hans Eworth oil on panel, 1554 NPG 4861
Mary I (1516-58) c.1570 After Antonis Mor Oil on Panel First recorded in the Royal Collection during the reign of Queen Victoria Antonis Mor – Museo del Prado
Portrait of Mary I of England, signed “HF 1554” (originally “HE”), Society of Antiquaries of London LDSAL 336, oil on oak panel
Antonis Mor (1512/1516c.1576) (after) Trinity College, University of Cambridge Catalog no. P02108 [2]
Charlecote Park © National Trust
Written key features of this brooch are The Mary Tudor pearl or simply The Tudor pearl - an asymmetrical drop-shaped pearl featured in at least three portraits of Queen Mary I of England. This jewel may be represented in her portraits by Hans Eworth and Anthonis Mor.
ANTIQUE FIGURES
“At her breast, Mary wears a table diamond with a pearl pendant. The brooch corresponds with the first entry in Katherine Parr’s inventory of ‘Jewells in a coffer having written upon it the Queenes Jewells’, which lists an ‘ouche or flower containing a fair diamond tabled holden by Antiques with a large pendant pearl’. In Mary’s Inventory this same diamond ‘holden by Antiques with a large pendant perle’ is the first item listed. (Society of Antiquaries of London)
The Tudor pearl was found around 1526 and was given to Isabella of Portugal. When Isabella died in 1539, she bequeathed it to her daughter, Juana of Austria. It was then sent to Mary I as part of the negotiations for her marriage to Juana's brother, Philip of Spain and is seen in contemporary portraits, suspended from a circular golden brooch.

The brooch comes in my gift box.