WW1 Machine Gun Corps Gold Locket
The locket features a maker's mark to the reverse (and partial English hallmark for 9ct gold). It was made by Solomon Blanckensee & Sons Ltd. - for further context, here's something I wrote about the company a while ago:
Polish-born Abraham Solomon Blanckensee founded his first jewellery manufacturing business in Bristol, England, in 1826 which later relocated to Birmingham before opening a showroom in Hatton Gardens, London. By the time of his death in 1864, he was held in high esteem and had crafted a successful business - acquiring a number of smaller companies along the way - to pass down to his children, Abraham and Aaron. Their success brought the family a certain (presumably unwanted) fame and notoriety, resulting in a number of grim robberies that made it into the press:
"On Monday a case containing jewellery valued at £1,000 was abstracted from the trap of a Mr. Blankensee, principal of a Birmingham firm of manufacturing jewellers, which was standing outside a shop in Tottenham Court-road, London. The coachman stood at the horse's head, and a policeman was standing within a few yards of the end of the vehicle at the time." - The Pembrokeshire Herald and General Advertiser, 27th January 1882.
"A daring robbery from a London railway station of £6,000 worth of jewels is reported. It was made at King's Cross Station of the Great Northern Railway. The victim is Mr. Blanckensee, of Messrs. S. Blanckensee and Son, Ltd., wholesale manufacturing jewellers, of Frederick-street, Great Hampton-street, Birmingham, manufacturing jewellers, with a London office at Ely-place, Holborn. Mr. Harry Blanckensee is well known on the road as a traveller in high-class goods. He arrived from Hull about 8 o'clock on Friday night and handed in at a temporary cloakroom close by the entrance to the Tube Railway at King's Cross Station a brass-bound leather case containing his samples, valued at £6,000." - Llais Llafur
Era: WW1 circa 1915
Size: 22mm by 19.5mm (not including jump ring)
Marks: SB&S Ltd maker's mark and partial Chester hallmark for 9ct gold
Condition: Great antique condition. Original glass remains over one photograph.
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