EDMOND JOHNSON CELTIC REVIVAL TARA BROOCH, CIRCA 1890

Of penannular design, decorated with densely textured fine filigree panels and abstract entwined Celtic knot-work, the reverse fitted with a C-clasp, stamped and tested 15 karat gold, Dublin, with maker's mark of Edmond Johnson Ltd. of Dublin, width 5.5cm wide.

Why we are obsessed:

This brooch was crafted by Dublin’s premier 19th-century jeweller Edmond Johnson of 94 Grafton Street. While Johnson had been crafting other Celtic Revival jewellery pieces since the mid-19th century—such as creating the Cavan Brooch variant in 1849 for Queen Victoria's visit—his specific, famous museum-quality facsimiles of the original 8th-century Tara Brooch were developed in the early 1890s. This replica, whether worn on a coat lapel or as a scarf pin as a modern statement piece, or acquired as a museum-quality example of Irish design heritage, offers an extraordinary slice of Dublin’s golden age of craft.