Victorian Flora Cameo Brooch
I have a fertile garden in the lands that are my wedding gift, filled with noble flowers by my husband [Zephyrus, the West Wind], who said, "Be ruler, O goddess, over flowers." As soon as the dewy frost is shaken from the leaves... the Hours come together clothed in many colours and gather my flowers in lightly woven baskets. Then come the Graces, twining flowers into garlands... I was the first the first to make a flower from the blood of the boy from Therapnae [Hyacinthus].... You to, Narcissus, keep your name in my well-tended garden... And need I tell of Crocus and Attis and Adonis, the son of Cinyaras, from whose wounds I caused the flowers to spring that honour them? - Ovid, Fasti 5. 209-230
Here Ovid uses figures from Greek mythology to give substance and context to the Italian fertility goddess, Flora, who otherwise has no myths. This delicately carved bull's mouth shell depicts her beautifully and in exceptional detail; the Roman goddess of youth, fertility, spring, and flowering (particularly of grain and the vine) with leaves and blossoms in her hair. She's mounted in a large, 9 carat gold brooch setting with applied ropework border, dating from the 1870s.
In ancient Rome, the festival of Floralia was held between the 28th April and 3rd May, in honour of it's namesake goddess. The festival was a jovial and spirited (and often salacious) affair, full of theatre, competitions, comedy, hunting and lots of drinking. In contrast to many festivals of the time held by and designed to celebrate the patrician ruling class, it was rather democratic in nature and held mainly for the enjoyment of the 'plebeian' or working classes.
Era: Victorian, circa 1870
Size: 5.5cm by 4.8cm
Stone: Bull's Mouth Shell
Marks: Stamped 9CT
Condition: Great antique condition
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