An amazing piece of jewelry from long before your time!
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oklds
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An amazing piece of jewelry from long before your time!
I know you have seen this before, on old pictures of a Church woman. It was already several hundred years old when it was bought for a wedding present in 1820-something. Can anyone tell me what happened to it between 1893 to 1932?
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oklds
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Re: An amazing piece of jewelry with a really neat history!
oklds wrote: ↑February 10th, 2019, 3:42 pm Got some more recent information. This was a brooch given to Emma Smith by Joseph just before he went to Carthage. There is a lock of his hair in the sealed compartment in the back. The painting it is on is in the RLDS museum; it's of Anna Smith, Frederick's Wife.
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oklds
- captain of 100
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More information on Emma's brooch......
I had to go out to MA for a contract job, and decided to take Tammy and the girls with me. If we left a couple days early, we could stop at Kirtland, Niagra Falls, The Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, Palmyra, and see a bunch of other early Church historical sites. When we got to Kirtland, we visited the RLDS museum. I was speaking with Seth, the site director, when Tammy came in from another room and told me, "Dan, you gotta come see this!" I told her I'd be there in a few minutes, and she said, "No. You've gotta come see this NOW!" I thought maybe something was wrong with one of the kids, so I followed her.
She went into a room full of very old paintings. The one furthest from the door was of a Woman with that brooch on her dress. Lucy Mack Smith. The story goes that it was given to Joseph so he could give it to Emma, which he did on the day he left Nauvoo for Carthage. Emma didn't like to wear it much because it saddened her, so she gave it to Frederick so that he could give it to his Wife Anna, which he did. When Frederick died, Anna gave it to Alice. Alice kept it until 1925, when she gave it to Thomas, who gave it to his Wife. She gave it to Rolland, but my Mother did not want it at all, so Rolland kept it until he died, when I got it, in 2014, along with a large (5" x 6" x 2") box full of other jewelry, most of which looked like she had gotten on the 1920's version of Home Shopping Network.
I took all of it to a jeweler, who told me some of it was VERY valuable. I've included pics of those items. I also showed pics of the brooch and a couple of necklaces to Seth, who was able to tell me some history on them, since they were in other painitngs of one or the other of the Smith Women. He was fascinated with them, and wondered how I had gotten pictures of them so modern. I told him I had them in a SD box near my home. He asked me if I wanted to donate them to the RLDS church, and I declined, but agreed to send him pics.
She went into a room full of very old paintings. The one furthest from the door was of a Woman with that brooch on her dress. Lucy Mack Smith. The story goes that it was given to Joseph so he could give it to Emma, which he did on the day he left Nauvoo for Carthage. Emma didn't like to wear it much because it saddened her, so she gave it to Frederick so that he could give it to his Wife Anna, which he did. When Frederick died, Anna gave it to Alice. Alice kept it until 1925, when she gave it to Thomas, who gave it to his Wife. She gave it to Rolland, but my Mother did not want it at all, so Rolland kept it until he died, when I got it, in 2014, along with a large (5" x 6" x 2") box full of other jewelry, most of which looked like she had gotten on the 1920's version of Home Shopping Network.
I took all of it to a jeweler, who told me some of it was VERY valuable. I've included pics of those items. I also showed pics of the brooch and a couple of necklaces to Seth, who was able to tell me some history on them, since they were in other painitngs of one or the other of the Smith Women. He was fascinated with them, and wondered how I had gotten pictures of them so modern. I told him I had them in a SD box near my home. He asked me if I wanted to donate them to the RLDS church, and I declined, but agreed to send him pics.
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oklds
- captain of 100
- Posts: 276
Anybody ever hear of a 'Jade Butterfly'?
One other piece which is somewhat of a mystery. At the Kirtland museum, and at the Lynnwood Temple, Audrey was asked by more than one Woman, "Is that the Jade Butterfly"", and said it like it meant something. The jade carving and it's enclosure are VERY old (well over 100 years), but the chain is new (oldest maybe 1950's, probably 1980's). I had never heard of it before, and cannot find anything in LDS or RLDS lore about a 'Jade Butterfly'. Anybody know anything about it?
As you can tell, for lack of anything better to do, I'm going through my Dad's stuff he left me after his death in 2014. There's a bunch more jewelry, a lot of papers, a couple of Mormon song books from 1835, and a bunch of other coins and trinketry. I also found the three pics Thomas took inside the 'Rock room', but they are VERY faded, and I don't have the equipment to restore them. Anybody got any ideas?
Does anybody know why there would be so many rings in this stuff? Did people wear a lot of rings in the 1800's?
As you can tell, for lack of anything better to do, I'm going through my Dad's stuff he left me after his death in 2014. There's a bunch more jewelry, a lot of papers, a couple of Mormon song books from 1835, and a bunch of other coins and trinketry. I also found the three pics Thomas took inside the 'Rock room', but they are VERY faded, and I don't have the equipment to restore them. Anybody got any ideas?
Does anybody know why there would be so many rings in this stuff? Did people wear a lot of rings in the 1800's?
