Antiques, Day 5

 

Today's stunner is a large Georgian Black Dot Paste Stick Pin in pristine condition. At 175 years old we should all look this good! Paste is a very hard form of glass that was originally used as a substitute for diamonds by a growing middle class that couldn't quite afford them. Black Dot Paste is known as the highest quality form of the genre & has a tiny black dot painted on the very bottom underside of the stone, thought to have mimicked the open culet of early diamond cuts which often look quite dark or black. Apart from the substitution of paste for diamonds there was little difference between them. In fact, the craft required to cut paste is said to be more demanding and difficult than the art of cutting diamonds.