Name/TitleBrooch with green, white & purple stones
About this objectSilver brooch of flowers and filigree set with stones in green, white (one gem missing) and purple. Date and provenance unknown. It has been suggested that the brooch is linked to the women's suffrage movement but this is extremely unlikely. The green, white and purple colour combination is common in jewellery and was used for purely aesthetic reasons long before and after the WSPU adopted it.
Medium and MaterialsInorganic, metal
Subject and Association KeywordsWomen's suffrage
Subject and Association KeywordsFashion - accessories, jewellery
Subject and Association Descriptionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_Social_and_Political_Union:
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia; Sylvia was eventually expelled.
The WSPU membership became known for civil disobedience and direct action. Emmeline Pankhurst described them as engaging in a "reign of terror". Group members heckled politicians, held demonstrations and marches, broke the law to force arrests, broke windows in prominent buildings, set fire to or introduced chemicals into postboxes thus injuring several postal workers, and committed a series of arsons that killed at least five people and injured at least 24. When imprisoned, the group's members engaged in hunger strikes and were subject to force-feeding. Emmeline Pankhurst said the group's goal was "to make England and every department of English life insecure and unsafe".
Named CollectionGlasgow Women's Library
Object TypeJewellery
Object numberGWL-2010-81
Copyright Licence
Attribution - Share Alike (cc)