My First Love In Victorian Jewelry...

This is a wonderful Victorian piece from my family. It is 14K gold with a garnet stone in the centre topped with and surrounded by seed pearls. It is a keepsake locket, although I have never known there to be anything inside. There is a bezel on the back and there is the original photo there which shows my great grandmother (the original owner), my grandmother, and my mother as a little girl. The brooch has a pin and also a loop to wear as a necklace. However, it does not hang properly as a necklace because it is quite heavy, and so I use the chain only as a safety. There is also a peculiar shaped hook on the bottom part of the back. This is for the other half of the brooch. My mother's sister was given the other part of the brooch and my mother this part by my grandmother, who received the entire piece from her mother. The other part is similar but shaped like a teardrop, with a loop on the top meant to hang from the hook under my brooch. My cousin now owns this as both the sisters have passed away. I was fascinated by this beautiful thing as a little girl, and dreamed about the long dark, heavy satin dresses that were in my grandmothers attic and that it must have been worn with originally. I have loved Victorian jewelry ever since. Once on ebay I saw a teardrop something like this, but not the same, and I knew immediately that it was the other part to a 2-part brooch like mine. This beautiful piece has been loved by 4 generations of women in my family.