Posted 5 years ago
rhineisfine
(17 items)
This is possibly my fave Sherman brooch (at the moment). It's a domed green-peridot-AB teal starburst brooch. I think I've only seen this design once before, and then it was in different colours, so I was very chuffed to find this one.
The brooch bears a rectangular Sherman cartouche with script, while the (clipback) earrings are unmarked. All three were sold at my local thrift shop after coming in as part of an estate donation, which is why I am reasonably certain the original owner bought them as a set.
If anyone has an idea of age, I'd love to hear. I've heard that the oval cartouche is 1950s while the square cartouche is 1960s, but I've no idea if that's actually true!
Probably 1960's and you would think that with such a design they might repeat this design more often. I am kind of stumped and want to say that I never seen it before, but then maybe also I have never been totally aware of this design. I don't know if the design has been seen by the authors of THE book on Sherman masterpieces, so I guess I will contact them for you to see what they say !~
I call this a pretty close one to the perfect pinwheel design which I have shown before in my posts. Not really sure I would call it a starburst as it more resembles a pinwheel !~
What pieces, if any, are marked Sherman ??
From what I see it differs and it definitely is smaller than the Sherman Pinwheel brooch !~
Thank you for your very kind comments, PhilDMorris!
There's a rectangular cartouche with "Sherman" in script on the brooch (pin). Nothing on the earrings.
I'll try to get a photograph of the back of the brooch tomorrow :)
P.S. And if I can remember where I saw the other brooch that resembled this one, I will let you know.
OK, the similar Sherman brooch can be seen on Pinterest, based on an eBay listing that will probably disappear before too long. The seller advertised it as a "titty brooch", presumably due to the central cluster. That one is a set of brooch and earrings, very similar, but clear white and green rather than the colour combo I've got:
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/229120699781288094/
I'm not sure it's OK here to include the link to the eBay item (which is sold and expired now anyway), but if you go to the Pinterest listing, you can click through to eBay and still see the detail photos for that item.
OK, at least now I realize that that link is of a friend of mine also, dear Renee. The brooch illustrated may be going up soon, or just went up as it is using her backdrop which she uses. I know now more what I am talking about. The pinwheel I have is the large pinwheel and yours is the small version or medium. There is another design also which is more similar to yours than mine, although I own a version of it also. You see that small design of this which uses a lot of the smaller stones and less navettes than the large. I have seen that one many times on ebay but yours not as much. Yours is more organized in the traditional shapes of pinwheel and swirl design combined. The one standard thing in common of ALL 3 is the pinwheel design AND they have the central collection in the round of all the tiny rhinestones which make up this cluster of about 19 small stones just in the center ! They are always popular on ebay because of the small cluster of stones in the middle makes it desirable. It is hard to talk about it but if you see yours and mine together there is a marked difference !~
Here is the 3rd version:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Sherman-Jewels-of-Elegance-Signed-Brooch-Earrings-in-Clear-Ice-Coloring/223457454000?hash=item34071a27b0:g:d4IAAOSw4sNb9sZa
Ooh, thank you for explaining that! Fascinating! I hadn't realized this was the little sibling to the glorious huge pinwheel, but that does explain a lot. The large pinwheel has such a different vibe - obviously because of the huge number of navettes, but also because they terminate in those small (round?) rhinestones, which gives it a slightly chunky feeling.
BTW, the listing you linked to - I found a set from the same seller that appears to be the same design as mine (different colours of rhinestone though), and here it is:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Sherman-Jewels-of-Elegance-Signed-Brooch-Earrings-in-a-AB-Coloring-GORGEOUS/323755543251
(I hadn't known about this seller. God help my budget :)
Just look at you two chatting Sherman. The rest of us just look at the jewellery and stay gobsmacked by the beauty!
Gorgeous
racer4four, no worries, I may chatter like mad but I am as gobsmacked as you are ;) I spent most of this evening staring at Phil's Sherman posts with my mouth open in abject awe!
Broochman, nice to meet you! Thank you for the friendly welcome!
Beautiful set . Nice to have you join CW and yes Phil does have a amazing collection and knowledge of Sherman he readily shares .
Thank you, Manikin!
And a belated extra thank-you to Phil - I can mark this "mystery" as Solved thanks to his generously shared expertise :)
I love the complexity and colors of this piece. BTW, racer4four (Karen) is our Japanese art glass expert. (I know she is going to squirm a bit at the "expert" title, but she sure knows more about the topic than anyone else that I know!)
kwqd and valentino97, thank you for your sweet comments!
And kwqd, thanks for kindly mentioning racer4four. I haven't even dared to really dip a toe in Japanese art glass (yet) - so far it's mostly a category that I admire rather than collect, but who knows!
Beautiful Sherman set! Great discovery. Never find Sherman in thrift stores here. Does it glow?
Daisy1000, to me it does!
In my corner of Canada, Sherman does show up occasionally in thrift shops, but not as often as you might think. Maybe I'm just not thrifting often enough? Mostly I see them at consignment stores, usually with the kinds of price tags you'd see on eBay.
This set was a bit different. I volunteer at a charity thrift shop. A gentleman came in to donate some possessions of his late mother. Among her things were several Sherman items. I didn't realize this until I saw our jewellery person, with a small pile of glittering rhinestones pieces, writing out an $8 price tag for one of the brooches. At this point you have to imagine me experiencing the classic angel-and-devil-on-the-shoulders scenario! Fortunately the angel won out, so I explained that they are just a BIT more valuable than that, and argued that the shop should set a higher price. Long story short, we included them all in a silent auction. To my astonishment, I was the sole bidder on this set, and won them at the starting price of Cdn $50. I won most of the other items, too (which did have other bidders, but I was motivated!). I'm happy to say the charity did very well out of it in the end, and I came away delighted. But I think this was the prettiest of the bunch.
Interesting. I’m so glad that it “glows” for you. That’s really what collecting is all about: finding items you love. Yet, I really was asking if it glows under black light? Some of the peridots and apple greens do.
Ha ha, thanks, now I understand! Unfortunately I don't have a black light bulb to check this with. I'll see if I can buy one locally. That would indeed be a wonderful discovery!
Great piece of Sherman work, Gorgeous coloration.
I love the way you take yours pictures that show the cut top part of every Blue Azure rhinestone, well done, and like others say welcome to the site, enjoy.
Alan
I am taking some days off due to some site overkill and need a break. I did contact Sandra, the Sherman Guru, and here is what she said. I did not know of the facebook page and will have to figure out facebook as now it looks harder to figure out :
" Wow! What a detailed conversation you ended up having. I don’t think there is anything I could add. It’s an interesting little piece. I don’t think the design is that rare, nor the individual colours because Sherman loved blues but the combination with the peridot stones is unusual. Not sure I’ve seen that grouping of colours almost makes me wonder if someone asked for those colours specifically, possible to go with a dress for a wedding or the like.
Thanks for sharing Phil. Please feel free to send the owner to the Sherman Masterpiece Facebook group if they’d like to discuss it or inquire further to the group. "
Phil : I think the colours had me bedazzled or confused at first. I am not really a fan of those colours but I am sure some people might be. The earring design is a common one, so Sandra must be right, that someone probably requested those colours. Hope you find more. I do not have a black light to see if they glow and I probably will not invest in one at this stage of my game !~
Alan2310, thank you for your lovely feedback!
Phil, thank you so very very much for your generous sharing of information, and also for kindly contacting Sandra on my behalf and relaying her comments. That is very interesting about the colour combination! I wonder how easy it was to special-order a specific colour combo from Sherman?
Anyway, now that I know this one isn't that common, I'll keep my eyes open for other examples. I think many others share your feelings about those colours (I was the sole bidder at the silent auction for this set), but from my side I've always enjoyed the peacock play of blues and greens together, so for me this is perfect.
Lastly, thanks, I'll check out Sandra's Facebook group - excellent news, I had no idea it existed. I'm not very active on Facebook but this sounds truly worth joining. My Sherman collection is small and frankly not that remarkable, but it will be wonderful to share what I have and - better yet - see other people's dazzling photographs.
Thanks again, Phil :) and please enjoy your break!
P.S. If I ever get a blacklight I will try it out on this brooch and share here whether anything "glows" :)
Do you want to post a photo of the backs of everything. Thanks.
BebeOne, just did, please enjoy.
* Brooch has a rectangular cartouche with 'Sherman' in script.
* Earrings have no Sherman stamp or mark, but they both share the same patent number. It's very hard to make out (I had to use a loupe), but it looks like 'PAT.156452'.
They look great, rhineisfine. Excellent back photos. I like your black backgrounds. Do you like black Sherman jewelry, as well? I do.
BebeOne, thank you for your kind comment. Yes, I do indeed like black Sherman pieces, but I don't actually own any yet. The only jewellery I have that even remotely resembles that is an unmarked pinwheel-style brooch with black and clear AB elements. Cheap and cheerful, definitely not Sherman ;)
Do you have any black Sherman jewellery you'd like to share?
Ms. CrystalShip, thank you for your lovely comments, and for your kind welcome. I'm glad you like the set.
My little "shoulder devil", ha ha - I wouldn't have given in to it, honestly - I couldn't stand being with myself if I had. It was just a momentary "flicker," but one that I imagine is a hazard of being a thrift shop volunteer in such situations, if we're honest with ourselves. (Which is why we always ask another volunteer to price any item we might fancy!) Anyway, as you say, the charity shop does amazing things to help the community; I joined it because I admired the dedication of the volunteers and the good work they do, so that always comes first. We also have a fabulously supportive customer community and sometimes they'll let us know if they think we've underpriced something, too :)
Ms. CrystalShip, I'm looking forward to seeing you around Collectors Weekly. Thanks again for your sweet note!
Great piece to enjoy again, it is hard to see on this wonkey hosp site they are building. 15 days now of a 30 day stay.. Take care till I can get back to sherman site.
six-O-one, thank you for the kind comment! Much appreciated.
PhilDMorris, nice to hear from you again :) but I'm sorry to hear about your situation. Please take good care of yourself and I look forward to seeing you on the Sherman site again soon.
O.K. now I understand why I had such a hard time accepting your photos of this set you have. I have the same colours in a different set I have and I cannot take a photo that does it justice and this one is probably better than I could have done. I feel the green and that beautiful ab'ing do not show very well in photos. I had a new set I wanted to put up but my pics so far have been rubbish. This set is fabulous !~
Just love the 19 stone cluster on the top of this bracelet. Sherman did some of the most difficult settings in this planet of jewelry. This is one of his fabulous trademarks he made, so no one will ever forget this eye candy !~
Sorry meant brooch !
Phil, no worries at all, and thank you for your nice comments :) Originally I took photos of this brooch as it was being sold in a silent auction at a charity shop I volunteer at, and they wanted to advertise it in advance. I was subsequently the highest bidder, and won it fair and square. (Warning: taking careful photographs of a beautiful item increases attachment to it!) Anyway, the colours are true, but I'll admit I took quite a few photographs before I was satisfied that I'd captured it. IIRC I photographed it against black velvet, then cleaned up the "speckles" on the velvet (there are always a few) in Photoshop Elements. I did not tinker with the brooch image at all, however! It really is those colours. I'm still thrilled with this set, largely because it's rare to see exceptional Sherman pieces in the wild where I live, and my pockets are not deep enough to buy most the items I see online. So this was a very special find indeed.
I think Renee has this pin for auction this week, I just love his pieces with the 19 stone cluster at the top which is stacked and domed to fit into a space of just 1/4 of an inch, superb !~
Just thought that I would mention that I am re-watching the American TV series Shogun which is set in 17th century Japan. The attention to detail is amazing. There are numerous sake and tea ceremony clips using traditional implements, including choshi, kintsugi repaired chawan, etc. All things I missed before I became interested in Japanese art. The series is available on DVD at a low price,used on ebay or Amazon.
Kevin, I thought I'd replied to this, but apparently not! Thank you for your thoughtful comment. It's been years since I've watched "Shogun" but I would love to see it again. Like you, I'll probably appreciate it a lot more because of what I've learned of Japanese art and culture in the interim. Great suggestion, thank you!
I still love this set. Again I say that the roundel or cluster of small stones, about 19 in that roundel is about 1/4 inch, not much more, so very detailed work. Sherman was the only person I believe to do this, as I have yet to find another ! He almost made it his trademark or calling card, as it was one of his signature moves. It worked so well, so it was nice to see this fascinating play of stones, not seen better than this exceptional example !~