A sterling silver brooch featuring a hand painted portrait of a dog's head — the subject looking directly outward, rendered with real character and life. The floral applied border frames the portrait neatly. Hand painted dog portraits of this quality were a specialist art form of the Victorian period, produced by miniaturists who brought the same skill to animal subjects as to human ones.
The date of 1887 places this firmly in the high Victorian period — the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, when the finest craftsmanship of the era was at its peak.
Pin functions as it should and is secure in its holder.
Era: Victorian, 1887
Hallmarks: Birmingham assay office, lion passant for sterling silver with date letter 'n' for the year 1887
