Identifying Centre Stone?

[skyhart]

This appears to be a very old brooch that, unfortunately, has seen better days. It has no markings anywhere on it so I suppose it to be costume jewellery of a bygone era. But before it actually gets trashed I thought I would see if there were any ideas about the large cabochon centre stone.... could it actually be some kind of stone? Is it just glass? It is a very pretty turquoise colour and has the swirls & such inside it. I just do not know what it might be. Any ideas? THANKS

[orascottage]

Moonstone maybe?

[bijom]

Looks like an imitation/glass center stone to me. The smaller stones also appear to be glass foilbacks.

Interesting piece, though.

[oldasdirt2012]

Trashed? No,No,No,No,No.! Is that enough no's? LOL. The stones are in excelent condition and can be harvested to another piece from the same time frame missing a big or smaller stones of that color. New stones wont work in the older jewelry the differences are glaring to a true jewelry collecter .Everything there is usable and fixable on that pin (?) Sure would like to see the back if you have a chance to do a picture of it. Other then you are missing an aquamarine stone, the front is good. The poster before is probley right about the big stone being glass. Put it against your face, if cool to warm quickly thats glass. If warm at first touch thats plastic. 

[maxinemarv]

WELL SAID...and feel free to add a few NOs from me too, haha.  Do not trash the piece!

Looking forward to seeing the reverse.  🙂

[skyhart]

OK.... here are a few more pics. Actually the "stone" does feel somewhat cool when first picked up.

Brooch is about 1  1/4" X 1  1/2" in size - Stone is 1" X 3/4" in size.

[skyhart]

The "red" showing on the back in the photos is actually a silver colour - the gold wearing off in areas....

[skyhart]

OK - just did a magnetic test - the magnet sticks to the "closure" part of the brooch but NOT to the main body of the brooch?? HHHMMM... maybe it is an old siler/gold washed brooch?

[skyhart]

Tried cleaning it a bit - don't think it is "gold" covering it as it didn't get any shinier... "silver" got shinier where exposed but not the other. On the back it is very "muddy" - almost as if it has been painted on? Strange??

[oldasdirt2012]

It does look painted from my view as well. Smell it, Silver has a lite oder ,mixed metals will have a acidic chemical type smell. Magnet wont pick up metal that is brass, or copper as the main base of the design.If you have any small needle nose pliers handy you need to lightly squeeze the pin holder( to the right sandwich holder) as I believe the pin maybe a little loose by the looks of it. Hard to replace the same size pin that shunts past the encloser, as it tells the date or dateline of your pin. Maybe someone else can offer up more.

[ginarae]

The stone is likely czech glass, the construction and materials point to the same. A pretty pin, just needs some tlc.