Bijou Brooch Depicting Local Landmark Goes to Auction
Fellows’ auction of Antique & Modern Jewellery on Thursday 24th May will feature an early 20th century porcelain brooch depicting the historic Saint Nicolas Place in Kings Norton.
|
|
With intricate detail, beautifully executed in natural blues, greens and with subtle touches of violet, this 9ct gold, bijou brooch is a quaint memento of one of Birmingham’s landmark Tudor sites, almost a century before it underwent restoration.
The brooch pictures St Nicolas Church at Kings Norton, framed between the Old Grammar School – one of the oldest in the country – and the Tudor Merchant’s House, which at the time of manufacture was a functioning inn named ‘The Saracen’s Head’.
The inn was closed in the 1930s and the building was later renamed following its appearance on the BBC’s television contest, Restoration. Successfully winning to receive a grant of over £2.5 Million from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the site underwent restoration from 2004 to 2008 and was reopened thereafter with the collective name ‘Saint Nicolas Place’.
With distinctly Norman elements in its design, the church itself is believed to date back architecturally to the 12th century, however, its 60 metre tower and spire weren’t added until the 1400s. As well as having stained glass from illustrious makers, the church’s clergy has some acclaim, as the author of the much-loved Thomas the Tank Engine stories, Revd W V Awdry, served as a curate there between 1940 and 1946.
The brooch will be sold as lot 28 in Fellows’ auction of Antique & Modern Jewellery on Thursday 24th May at 10am and has an estimate of £160 – £220.
|
