An unusually large (42.8 grams, 61mm) late Georgian brooch-pendant, c. 1820–40, formed of foiled amethysts framing a compartment with sentimental hairwork, the body in 15k yellow gold. Brooches overtook the dress jewel, stud, and slide in popular utility by the late 18th century, partly as a result of women needing pinned ornaments to secure the front of fichus (kerchiefs commonly worn to cover the low neckline of a Georgian-era bodice). Due to broad consumer demand for the fichu pin, by c. 1800 jewelers produced them in various colors, materials, and shapes—the typical prototype being a squarish or oval cluster with a central compartment and a gemstone or paste halo. The 1811 account book of N. Goetze for instance records that two versions of “a blunt square Color’d Broach with Green chas’d Border & Glass for Hair” were produced for the city jewellers Kentish & Haynes (NRA 13466 V & A Museum, National Art Library). The British Museum contains a group of seven brooches of this type, with closed-back foiled gems or pastes set in cut-down collets being the shared element (see British Museum 1978,1002.88). Another example, British-made but in the State Historical Museum Moscow, shows a similar formal composition with a garnet halo surrounding a hair compartment (ОК 2316). With the introduction of Regency Empire-style dresses, the brooch evolved to take on multiple roles: as Shirley Bury writes in Jewellery 1789–1910, a brooch “might be an adaptable unit serving to decorate the bodice, or be set in a tiara, or double as a bracelet clasp. Made in sets, often graduated in size, they were worn on sleeves” (p. 168). As can be seen in the 1815 portrait of Mrs. Lumsden by Henry Raeburn, towards the end of the Georgian era brooches became large in scale and, in the absence of now-retired fichus, were worn at the center of the neckline in the style of Baroque and Rococo bodice jewels. The frequent pairing of hairwork with these brooch pins shows that, beyond decoration, these jewels were often sentimental. The hairwork within the present brooch is worked in a pattern commonly known as the “Prince of Wales feather”; its stylization with wheat-sheaf gold wire is typical of Georgian design, and was popularized from c.1790 onward. A jump ring with a safety chain and snap-on bail allows the present piece to be worn as a pendant.