November marks the return of the Poppy Ball, an annual charitable event that raises funds for The Royal British Legion. The event sees attendees wearing artificial red poppies as brooches. Every year, select designers create poppy brooches to be auctioned for charity. This year, the honor fell to British luxury jewelry maker, Garrard.
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The Garrard Brooch
The brooch by Garrard was created in the jeweler’s London workshops. The piece is beautiful and features intricate layering. Based in 18-carat gold, the poppy brooch is studded with a range of precious stones – black diamonds, rubies and garnets. The brooch is hand-painted using red and green translucent enamel, to give the true impression of a real poppy flower. The Garrard brooch is 42mm wide and measures 64mm from the tip of the leaf.
The luxury brooch was scheduled to be sold at an auction held on 10 November. Pre-auction estimates valued the Garrard brooch at a cool £25,000. Hopes were high that this piece of fine jewelry would fetch at least that much at the high-profile auction.
The Poppy Brooch Trend
Meanwhile, less expensive poppy brooches have been trending heavily, most particularly on the British edition of X Factor. Jewelry brand Kleshna designed Swarovski crystal poppies for the contestants to wear over the weekend. Most of the Kleshna brooches have already been sold out, even appearing on eBay at inflated rates. For instance, a £59.95 Kleshna brooch that was worn by a contestant on X Factor sold for £162.08 on the ecommerce site, drawing criticism about whether any of the funds will go to charity.
At least, there are no worries about the Garrard brooch not contributing to the Poppy Appeal.
Via: Professional Jeweler
