Herbarium Nr
070
Scientific Name
Viola × Wittrockiana hybrid
Common Name
Pansy
Type
Brooch and earrings
Place
Made in Newark, New Jersey, USA
Date
Approximately 1900
Collected by
A.J. Hedges & Co
Material
Enamel, 585/1000 gold 14 k, old single cut diamonds, natural pearl
Size
Brooch 31,6 x 30 mm. Earrings 20,5 x 12,9 mm
Total Weight
10,10 grams & 4,05 grams
Condition
Good. Hooks altered
Price
Sold
“You are always on my mind”, immortalized by a poetic set of polychrome enameled golden pansy flowers.
Such a sweet message spoken through the language of flowers. In Victorian England, flowers were often used for secret messages to potential romantic partners. Hidden in a tussie mussie ; some greenery wrapped in a doily with the relevant flowers in the middle. The pansy flower was used to express amorous thoughts like “You are always on my mind, I’m feeling amorous towards you, I am thinking of you”.
Pansy, the name of the pretty flower, indeed comes from the French word pensée; a noun derived from penser, “to think or “ponder over something”.
As penser also means to consider, to take measure of a situation, to take everything into consideration, the pansy flower was also embraced as a symbol by the Free Thinkers Society, a group of people who decided to adopt a mode of logical thought that was free from societal constraints, expectations, emotions or dogma.