Two Californian Gold Rush Souvenir Bar Brooches (1800 to 1900 California)

Gold

See: Finch and Co catalogue no.16, item no.26, for a South African example and catalogue no.17, item no.148, for a New Zealand example

In August 1848 Colonel R B Mason, Military Governor of California went to Washington and showed the Secretary of War a tea-caddy he had brought with him full of lumps and nuggets of Californian gold. The gold strike of 1848 then ceased to be solely a Californian concern and became the ‘Gold Rush’ attracting over one hundred thousand people to San Francisco in search of El Dorado during 1849 alone.

Two Californian Gold Rush Souvenir Bar Brooches
a. Shaped as a prospecting miners pick and shovel bound together around a gold nugget with a rope from which two miners buckets are suspended. The shovel marked to the reverse ‘18ct’
b. Shaped as a prospectors shovel with a found nugget of pure gold tied to the handle with a golden rope
Circa 1850 – 70

Sizes: 4.5cm wide – 1¾ ins wide (each)

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SOLD