Pendant
Kitching and Abud (founded 1824)
Category
Jewellery
Date
1836 (circa)
Materials
Aquamarine, diamond, gold, topaz, leather, velvet and metal.
Collection
Calke Abbey, Derbyshire
NT 288806
Summary
A topaz, aquamarine and diamond brooch, dating from around 1836. The top section with removable brooch fittings mounted with an oval-shaped Imperial topaz of unusually deep orangey-pink saturation and estimated to weight approximately 22.0 carats. The topaz is presented in a gold scalloped setting with old-mine cut diamond scrolling frame. Suspended below is a large multi-faceted aquamarine briolette pendant drop estimated to weigh approximately 58.0 carats, with single rose cut diamond top stone and a hook fitting to enable detachment from the main brooch. The brooch is contained within its original fitted case by Kitching & Abud.
Full description
In 1836, Jane Whitaker, Lady Crewe (1799-1880) made a significant purchase from London retailer J. Kitching & Co. The surviving bill and receipt record that on 19 March 1836 she bought ‘a diamond necklace’ for £315 together with ‘A diamond Brooch with a fine red topaz & blue drop’ for £94.10s, with a discount of £40.18s applied to both items (Derbyshire Record Office D2375/E/A/6/1/9b). In an annotation to the original bill, her daughter Isabel Jane Crewe (1830-1909) later recorded how the purchase was funded, ‘These I believe were bought with part of the £1000 given Lady Crewe by her Uncle Mr Ayton’. John Ayton, of Scole Lodge, Norfolk (1759-1836) had passed away earlier that year, leaving his estate to Jane’s mother (NA PROB/11/1857/109).
Provenance
Brooch with pendant drop, purchased by Jane Whitaker, Lady Crewe (1799-1880) for £94.10s.0d on 19 March 1836 from J. Kitching & Co, London as ‘a diamond Brooch with a fine red topaz & blue drop’; by whom bequeathed in 1880 as an heirloom to remain at Calke Abbey with instruction that it should remain ‘in its present setting’; recorded amongst the contents of a jewel case at Calke Abbey in 1886 as a ‘Roze Topaz Brooch set in Diamonds, with blue Topaze drop left as an heir loom to Sir J H [John Harpur] Crewe, by his mother Jane, Lady Crewe’; probably the ‘brooch with green pendant left to my Father by my said Grandmother [Jane Crewe]’ described in the will of Sir Vauncey Harpur Crewe, 10th Baronet (1846-1924). Thence by descent to Henry Harpur-Crewe (1921-91) and transferred with Calke Abbey and its contents to the National Trust by the Treasury in lieu of Capital Transfer Tax in 1985 with an endowment provided by the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
Makers and roles
Kitching and Abud (founded 1824), jeweller Kitching and Abud (founded 1824), retailer