This brooch was bequeathed to Durham University’s Oriental Museum by Miss D.M. Squire. It is an oval piece of costume jewellery that is usually pinned at a woman’s collar. It is made of nickel silver with a mother-of-pearl inlay and a patinated cast copper figure of a woman being pulled in a rickshaw, which has broken at some point, losing the driver. The mother-of-pearl inlay was originally painted with gold lacquer decoration, which has since worn away to reveal the darker base layer of lacquer. This piece was likely mass-produced in the late 19^th century, as numerous comparative objects can be found in personal collections, as well as identical cast copper rickshaws, appearing on other accessories including buttons and lockets.

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The overall growth in machine manufacturing in the late Victorian period and the increasing number of accessories that women were expected to wear caused novelty jewellery to become extremely popular. Mass-produced jewellery allowed women to change pieces at will and express themselves through their personal adornments. Whilst many of these pieces were made of sterling silver, nickel silver was also used to stay within the fashions of the period, but at a lower cost.

There was no tradition of jewellery wearing in traditional Japanese costume in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, as it was perceived that a brooch or necklace would disturb the lines of a kimono. This brooch was therefore produced specifically for a Western audience. The British Treaty of Edo in 1858 allowed European access to various Japanese ports and allowed Japanese art to begin to reach Western markets. However, it was the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle and the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 that brought Japanese art and ornament to the attention of Western audiences. The appreciation for Japanese aesthetics and craftsmanship quickly grew and by the late 1870s, imported ornaments and jewellery from Japan, as well as China, were available to the mass market.

By the 1880s, Japanese trinkets were so popular that Japanese manufacturers found themselves producing cheap, low craftsmanship goods for export to Europe. So-called Japonaiserie denoted the Japanese trinkets which middle-class enthusiasts indulged in. This influx in Japanese imports may be the context in which the rickshaw brooch was produced. However, there is no certainty that this piece was produced in Japan. Chinese producers are another possible source for this piece, as designs were commonly mistaken for Japanese ornament. Furthermore, European centres for imitation Japanese goods are another potential source of production for the rickshaw brooch. New “department” stores in the West, such as Liberty & Co. also produced ornaments in an “oriental” style, at a low cost, and jewellery companies in Birmingham were mass-producing Japanese-inspired jewellery as early as the 1870s. This further allowed the spread of japonaiserie in Victorian domestic life.

Jewellery in the Late Victorian Era

It is well known that “Victorians liked jewellery; they were pleased to see it and delighted in wearing it”. During the late 19^th century, feminine accessories conveyed a multitude of messages to the eye. Veblen (1899) discussed the use of women’s accessories as a form of conspicuous consumption to display the class, stating that “property had become the most easily recognised evidence of a reputable degree of success”. However, jewellery was also used to express one’s personality and cultural attitudes.

Japanese ornament, including lacquerware and metalwork, was praised for its elegance of design and unrivalled workmanship. Woodblock prints of Japanese folk tales were also seen as an inspiration for western jewellers. These jewellers were also inspired by the contrasts achieved in Japanese ornament and the juxtaposition of tortoiseshell, horn or lacquer with mother-of-pearl, coral, and gold was quickly adapted and marketed to the public. A woman in a rickshaw would not be out of place within other mediums, suggesting its popularity with a Western audience, and a brooch with this figure would easily pass as a typical piece in the tastes of the 1880s.

However, the use of nickel silver as a base for this brooch, and the commonness of its central figure suggests that it is not the work of high-class jewellers such as Tiffany or Gorham, and instead suggests that it is a mass-produced piece of novelty jewellery. In the 1870s, there was a general complaint that a woman’s wardrobe was becoming more and more expensive. This was due to the number of trimmings and accessories included in women’s costume in the High Victorian period. To offset these costs, imitation and costume jewellery made with lower quality materials became more common. The rise in machine manufacturing in the 19^th century allowed for the creation of more affordable novelty jewellery for a growing middle class. Machine manufactured jewellery was not stigmatised as it is in the modern-day. Instead, these pieces were considered more precise and generally better than the more expensive products of craftsmen. Imitation jewellery was therefore eagerly consumed by the middle class as they entered the jewellery market for the first time.

During the Victorian era, women found ways to gain status and agency through jewellery and accessories. The growth of novelty jewellery allowed women to purchase a wider variety of relatively inexpensive pieces, which satisfied their need for daytime ornaments. This also allowed for a level of cultural exploration when it came to personal aesthetic choices. Women were able to choose pieces that reflected their personality, through sports jewellery, personalised pieces, or those that reflect their sense of adventure or cultural attitudes. The latter of these aesthetics is likely the context of the Rickshaw brooch, as it is easily tied in with the perceptions of Japanese objects during this period.

Exoticism and Status

In the Victorian period, Far Eastern and colonial goods were considered prestigious, given their “exotic” nature, and were initially associated with elite consumption and luxury. Exotic imports glamourised faraway and mysterious places, which quickly fed into marketing tactics and soon even the simple evocation of exoticism was seen as desirable. To the British, Japan was seen as a place “unspoiled by industry and urbanisation”, which fed into their appreciation of the “simplicity” of Japanese art, as well as their own colonial notions of superiority. Taste in Japanese art and aesthetics (Japonisme) specifically was seen as highly intellectualised and pretentious, leading to the Aesthetic Movement in Britain.

However, early appreciation was turned into a craze for Japanese imports by the 1880s, as Japanese craftsmen began to export wares more suited to Western tastes. This craze also led to the mass production of inexpensive Japanese ornament (Japonaiserie). The mass production of goods allowed for the democratisation of “good taste”, which was now “no longer an expensive luxury to indulge in”. The middle class could now express themselves and indulged in their curiosity of exoticism through oriental domestic items and trinkets. The rickshaw brooch represents Japonaiserie as a piece made of inexpensive materials, but with the same aesthetics of highly popular pieces, and could have been used to demonstrate the wearer’s worldliness and interest in the “exotic” nature of Japan as viewed by Victorians.

Originally, it was suggested that this brooch was created and purchased by the Squire family during their time in Japan. However, this is very unlikely. Even if the piece was manufactured in Japan, it was produced as part of a larger group of comparable pieces that were exported to the West. The height of this production coincides with the Western obsession with japonaiserie between 1870 and 1890, whereas the Squire family did not arrive in Japan until the early 20^th century.

Mrs. Squire was a middle-class consumer in the late 19^th century, and it is likely she bought this brooch when the craze for Japanese goods was at its height. It appears to have been well used, based on the wear of the gold lacquer over time and was likely worn until the catch plate on the back broke. Instead of representing the time spent by the Squire’s in Japan, this piece represents the popularity and fetishization of Japanese-style goods to demonstrate one’s “worldliness”. This was not uncommon in the late 19^th century and led to the mass production of Japanese and Japanese-inspired goods that were marketed to the growing middle class, also coinciding with an increase in mass-produced novelty jewellery.

This Object Belongs to the Durham University Oriental Museum

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