Engraved silver in the form of an emblematic winged globe with a large cushion-shaped citrine. Decorated with translucent blue enamel.
The outstretched wings, engraved with a feather pattern, and enamelled translucent blue, enclose a large cushion-shaped citrine representing the sun. This motif, often combined with cobras, decorated the walls & doors of ancient Egyptian architecture & was revived by nineteenth-century designers for the decorative arts. Christopher Dresser, in his Principles of Decorative Design {1873), was so impressed by the severity, rigidity of line, and dignity of Egyptian ornament that he stated that he knew “”of few instances where forms of an ornamental character have been combined in a manner either more quaint or more interesting than the example of the Winged disc or globe,”” which he identified as a symbol of protection. Since the Kensington firm of Child & Child was patronized by William Holman Hunt & Sir Edward Burne Jones with others of the pre-Raphaelite circle, this tiara represents their taste’. The tiara was acquired by The Richard H. Driehaus Museum, Chicago
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Engraved silver in the form of an emblematic winged globe with a large cushion-shaped citrine. Decorated with translucent blue enamel.
The outstretched wings, engraved with a feather pattern, and enamelled translucent blue, enclose a large cushion-shaped citrine representing the sun. This motif, often combined with cobras, decorated the walls & doors of ancient Egyptian architecture & was revived by nineteenth-century designers for the decorative arts. Christopher Dresser, in his Principles of Decorative Design {1873), was so impressed by the severity, rigidity of line, and dignity of Egyptian ornament that he stated that he knew “”of few instances where forms of an ornamental character have been combined in a manner either more quaint or more interesting than the example of the Winged disc or globe,”” which he identified as a symbol of protection. Since the Kensington firm of Child & Child was patronized by William Holman Hunt & Sir Edward Burne Jones with others of the pre-Raphaelite circle, this tiara represents their taste’. The tiara was acquired by The Richard H. Driehaus Museum, Chicago