Carved Amethyst Flower Brooch

Four amethyst blossoms, each cut whole from the rough purple crystal, nod on slender silver stems above a spray of chased leaves, the stalks drawn together and bound with a plain silver collar into a single hand-tied bouquet. The flower built from carved hardstone rather than a faceted gem set in metal is the signature idea of the Fred Davis line, and this spray is a full expression of it: the bloom itself is the stone.

Each calyx grips its amethyst in a ring of pointed silver petals, so the crystal reads as the swelling head of a bud just breaking open. The stone is left showing its natural facets and cloudy banding rather than polished to a jeweler's sparkle, which keeps the flowers heavy and real on their stems. The leaves are chased with a central rib and fine veining and curl back at the tips, the metalwork doing the naturalistic work that the stone cannot.

Davis ran the silver counter at Sanborn's in Mexico City, the first to gauge what visiting North Americans wanted and to have it made by the best independent silversmiths working to his designs. The brooch carries the FD mark and the SILVER MEXICO stamp that identify his counter. Morrill records the carved-amethyst flower as one of the designs associated with Valentín Vidaurreta, the gifted designer behind much of the naturalistic floral work Davis sold.

Because every blossom is cut by hand from a separate piece of crystal, no two are quite alike, and the bouquet keeps the irregularity of real flowers gathered from a garden.