An elegant antique Russian brooch by Alexander Tillander, set with natural pearls and rose-cut diamonds in silver-topped gold, in its original burgundy leather case.

St. Petersburg, circa 1910.

Length 1 3/4 in. (4,3 cm)

Scratched inventory number 8717.

Struck on the pin guard with master’s initials ‘A (a dot in center) T’ in the rhombus-shaped mark.

For a good image of Tillander’s mark see Gold And Silversmiths In Russia (1600-1926) by A. Ivanov, volume II, page 148.

Alexander Tillander was a prominent St. Petersburg jeweler. The Russian Imperial Court awarded the firm with a large number of commissions between 1909 and 1911. After the revolution, A. Tillander left St Petersburg for Finland where he died in 1918.