‘Eccentric Jewellery’ by Messrs Thornhill and Co,

in the form of a gold mouse feeding on a pearl in the centre of a gold plate.
The piece is advertised alongside a number of other jewels
decorated with mischievous mice in Queen Magazine, dated 31 July 1880.
The article states that the new range of ‘eccentric jewellery’ is ‘devised to serve the caprice of the day’,
which had grown tired of ‘butterflies, beetles and spiders.’
Whilst the writer concludes that the mouse itself is a ‘gracefully shaped little animal,’
they are unsure of Messrs Thornhill’s next venture into pig jewellery.

2.5cm in length

English, circa 1880

For further references on other pieces of Victorian English novelty jewellery
refer to Jewels and Jewellery by Clare Phillips (pg  90-91).