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This brooch was made in the midst of the bicycle craze that swept England in the 1890s. At the height of the suffrage movement, the bike became a symbol of women’s independence. The bicycle design depicted in this brooch is known as a “diamond-frame machine.” The brooch is designed with great accuracy and attention to detail, with movable handlebars, wheels, and pedals. With the wheels the designer was having some fun with the bike’s name, creating wheels featuring brilliant cut diamonds. It even has a small red ruby reflector on the front and a brown enamel seat that mimics leather.
This model of bicycle was likely ridden by a woman wearing a “rational” cycling dress. Offering safety and comfort, this costume included a voluminous garment known as a bifurcated skirt. Among the earliest “pants” designed for women, the garment protected the wearer's modesty as she stepped over the high crossbar. The division of each leg meant the wearer didn’t need the slanted bar to accommodate the fabric of her skirt. This was a brooch designed for the "New Woman”— independent and on the cutting edge of female cycling fashion, she wore the brooch to express her feeling of empowerment.
Bicycle brooch
Possibly by: Streeter & Co., LTD (English)
Probably English
mid–1890s
Object Place: England
Medium/Technique
Gold, enamel, diamond (old brilliant cuts), and ruby
Dimensions
Overall: 4 x 6.5 x 1 cm (1 9/16 x 2 9/16 x 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated anonymously
Accession Number2009.2419
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Brooches
This brooch was made in the midst of the bicycle craze that swept England in the 1890s. At the height of the suffrage movement, the bike became a symbol of women’s independence. The bicycle design depicted in this brooch is known as a “diamond-frame machine.” The brooch is designed with great accuracy and attention to detail, with movable handlebars, wheels, and pedals. With the wheels the designer was having some fun with the bike’s name, creating wheels featuring brilliant cut diamonds. It even has a small red ruby reflector on the front and a brown enamel seat that mimics leather.
This model of bicycle was likely ridden by a woman wearing a “rational” cycling dress. Offering safety and comfort, this costume included a voluminous garment known as a bifurcated skirt. Among the earliest “pants” designed for women, the garment protected the wearer's modesty as she stepped over the high crossbar. The division of each leg meant the wearer didn’t need the slanted bar to accommodate the fabric of her skirt. This was a brooch designed for the "New Woman”— independent and on the cutting edge of female cycling fashion, she wore the brooch to express her feeling of empowerment.
DescriptionThe bicycle represented is a generic diamond frame machine from around 1894–97. According to Scotford Lawrence (National Cycle Museum, England), the date is based on the fact that the top tube of the frame slopes up from the seat tube (after 1895, this tube became horizontal). The anatomy of the bike is shown in great detail, including the coiled element on the head tube (part of the brake system) and the oil lamp on the handlebar. The brooch has several movable parts (the wheels spin, the pedals turn, and the fine bicycle chain turns the rear wheel when advanced). The machine follows British design with two mudguards and brake (American diamond frame bicycles lacked these parts). According to Nicholas Oddy (Glasgow School of Art, Scotland), "It has all the appearance of a so-called 'cob,' a small, short-reach, diamond-framed machine designed specifically for women wearing rational cycling dress." This is a brooch for someone who is at the cutting edge of female cycling fashion, has considerable wealth, and chooses to make a statement about the new found freedom of woman at the height of the suffragist movement.
Marks
unmarked
ProvenancePrivate collection, England; 2009, sold by private collection to Wartski Ltd., London; 2009, sold by Wartski Ltd. to the MFA (Accession date: May 27, 2009)