VICTORIAN SAPPHIRE AND DIAMOND BROOCH, CIRCA 1890

Modelled as a fly, centred by a pear-shaped claaw-set sapphire, weighing approximately 0.90 carats, alongside a similarly set closed-back old European cut diamond, featuring pink gem-set eyes and wings detailed with fourteen rose-cut diamonds, the reverse fitted with a C-clasp and safety chain, tested 13.52 karat gold, length 4.5cm, within a Weir & Sons case.

Why we are obsessed: 

As the Industrial Revolution drove people into densely populated cities, a growing nostalgia for rural life made natural motifs, such as insects, highly popular. Around the same time, the opening of London's Natural History Museum sparked a widespread cultural fascination with entomology and the natural sciences.