Spode's "Blue Willow" Shadow Box Necklace
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This beautiful vintage china antiqued bronze shadow box necklace has been made from a vintage plate from the Spode's 'Blue Willow' pattern collection, which was 1st introduced in 1790!
What attracted me to the Blue "Willow" pattern is, of course, all the beautiful elements, from the gorgeous trees to the doves & all the geometric patterns throughout! But learning the backstory of the Blue "Willow" pattern made me love it even more! If you aren't familiar, here's the story:
"In the Blue Willow legend, a the beautiful daughter of a powerful man fell in love with her father's secretary. Discovering their love, the father banished the secretary and constructed a great fence to keep his daughter contained. She could only walk by the water and the willows. She despaired until she received a message from her lover. At a banquet, he rescued her, but her father noticed and chased them across a bridge. The got away, but years later, her father caught up with them. The secretary was killed, and the daughter died as well. In pity, the gods turned them both into doves so they could fly together forever.
Motifs displayed on Blue Willow china:
Blue Willow china is highly symbolic with many motifs from this legend in the design. If you look closely, you'll see the fence the father built to keep his daughter in, the bridge he chased the lovers across, the willow and stream by which the daughter walked, and at the top, there are two doves to represent the couple."
The unique antiqued bronze shadow box pendant setting was luckily curated with the help pf a friend in NY ~ she saw the listing on Marketplace, messaged me about it & the rest is, as they say, history! The glass door opens & latches closed.
The design for this pendant was chosen from the plate, cut out carefully with ceramic tile nippers, smoothed out to size & shape with my handy dandy grinder, then I lovingly placed adhered the porcelain piece into the square shaped antiqued bronze bezel that measures just over 1 1/2".
The necklace is an antiqued bronze cable chain with lobster claw clasp. The cable links make the necklace somewhat convertible in length ~ you can attach the lobster claw at the length you desire!