Sepia Saturday 181: 15 June 2013 - May I broach ...?

Today's Sepia Saturday subject is bodily adornment.

This first photo is of my maternal grandmother Kit Forfar.  She is wearing pearls, pearl earrings, a gondola brooch and a rather fetching pair of adorned glasses.  I'm guessing this photo was taken circa 1950s - Kit died April 1958.

I still have the gondola brooch.  

Look here it is in my collection...

Brooches have been much discussed at work this week as one of our colleagues (who has a very fine collection) has been sporting them on her lapel daily.  

If you look up the meaning of brooch in my husband's delapidated dictionary from school days (Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English - Fourth Edition 1951) it says:

n. ornamental, jewelled.  etc., safety-pin for fastening some part of female dress, esp. the neck. [ME broche = BROACH] 

and of course broach (or the first meaning of broach in same dictionary) means:

n. Roasting-spit; church spire rising from tower without parapet; boring-bit. [ME & F broche= It. brocca cf. L brocci dentes projecting teeth; var. of BROOCH]

I like the second meaning too which is the transitive verb (I think) meaning:

Pierce (cask) to draw liquor, begin drawing (liquor); open & start using (bale, box, cargo, etc.); begin discussion of, moot, [subject. of.prec.]

Anyway what I'm trying to say is brooches are a good conversation starter or ice-breaker - which is a good thing to have when one works in libraries. e.g.

 "Wow!  What a fabulous brooch.  Did you need some help?"

Or photography.  

e.g. "That's a nice brooch.  Could you just sit three-quarters on for me please?"

Back to relations wearing adornment.  So Kit, pictured above, had a twin sister Bell.

Here she is...adorned in coral I think.

Here's a photo of the twins together - adorned with hats, glasses, necklaces, gloves, corsages, handbags and the like...goodness!  What a production it must have been going out the front door every morning.  I'm exhausted just looking at this photo.  

Here are some other portraits I found today...not so cheerful perhaps as Kit and Bell but worthy of observation nonetheless.

Who is in the portrait above?  Well, one of my great Aunt Bell's daughters, Joy, married a Ray Jeffrey and this is a portrait I think of his grandmother .  I'm pretty sure she is wearing a cameo and isn't that a gorgeous big bow at the back of her head?

In this funeral card you can see the more devout adornment of a cross on my great-aunt's neck. I wrote about her in this blog here.

The photo in the funeral card came from this photo here I think.

It doesn't look like there is much adornment here but when you enlarge the photo I spy a cameo on the old lady.

This is what is written on the back of this photo

Which if you try and read the writing I think it says 

"young" 

(do they mean place or person??)  

"15 x 11 Bust. Also copy old lady for print and enlargement."  

And down the side it says 

"Mrs M McLoughlin."  

I don't know who the old lady is.  Is it Margaret's mother or grandmother?

This portrait is another perennial favourite of mine.  Eleanor Cook from my father's side of the family.  I have written about her here.  Plenty of adornment in this photo. 

Here's another lovely simple portrait of my paternal grandmother's sister - Daisy Carrett.

Sorry - it's a copy of photo rather than the original so I can't really see the pin or brooch clearly.

But it's very Gatsby don't you think?  Have you seen the movie?  Did you like it?

But when it comes to adornment...this is my favourite kind....

Here I am with one of my beloved cats - Tillie (short for Matilda) - this was taken in the backyard of our house in Aranda I think c.1970.  Dear Tillie - she was always a bit mad or highly strung as can be seen in this photo...

I'm looking forward to adorning myself with my BFF's cat shortly.  I'd better hop in the car now and head north.  For more sepia portraits click here.