<I>Bouquet holder, light blue enamel handle</I>

ca.1830-1920

Gilded brass bouquet holder with enamel handle. The vase is composed of Rococo Revival style ornaments featuring two cherub heads and two eggs. From the lip two pediments stamped with a Gothic Revival motifs including a pierced trefoil design makes this bouquet holder characteristic of the disregard for accuracy in the melding of historical styles that is typical of nineteenth-century design. Near the base of the vase a round-link chain connects to a floral pin. The pin would be inserted through the vase to pierce the stems of a bouquet in order to secure the flowers inside the holder. The neckband, which connects the vase to the handle, is stamped with floral decoration on a background of horizontal lines. The straight tapered handle is made of light blue enamel on copper with silver and gold paillons in designs around the stem, which recalls the French porcelain designs produced in the eighteenth century. The handle is capped in with a gilded brass finial stamped in two parts with three progressively smaller elements and a round-link chain and ring attached to the tip. The ring, which has small dots at the edges and large ones in the middle on the exterior, would allow the bouquet holder to be worn on the finger or attached to a chatelaine worn at the waist to free the lady's hands while dancing.