1960s Gold Tone Green Red Cloisonne Enamel Orchid Flower Brooch

This orchid brooch was made in the 1960s in gold-tone metal and decorated with green and red cloisonné enamel. It measures 4.5 by 4 cm and fastens with a pin and a roll-over locking clasp. It is unsigned. Flower brooches were among the most popular costume jewellery forms of the mid-century decades, and enamel gave them clear, durable colour that suited the bright palettes of the 1960s.

In the 1950s and 1960s a brooch was a standard finishing touch for a coat, suit or knit, and flowers were the most common subject. Costume jewellers offered them in enamel, rhinestones and gilt metal at accessible prices, so that a woman could own several and change them with the season or outfit. The orchid, associated with rarity and exoticism, brought a particular note of luxury to the genre.

Cloisonné is one of the oldest enamelling techniques, used for centuries in Byzantine, Chinese and other decorative traditions. Thin metal strips, or cloisons, are fixed to a base to form compartments, which are filled with enamel and fired. In the twentieth century the technique was adapted for smaller, more affordable objects, including costume jewellery. A 1960s cloisonné brooch connects that long history to the everyday accessory.

The gold-tone metal walls draw the outline of the orchid and divide its petals and leaves into distinct areas of green and red. Each colour sits within its own boundary, giving the flower a crisp, graphic quality closer to a drawing than to a naturalistic rendering. The roll-over locking clasp secures the pin, an important detail for a brooch worn on heavier fabrics.

Enamel is vulnerable to chips and cracks, and mid-century brooches often show damage to their colour. An example in very good condition keeps its design legible and its colours clear. Cloisonné flower brooches are collected for their craft and colour, and they remain easy to wear on coats, jackets and knitwear.