The golden pick and shovel in jewellery

A second episode and iconographic development in 'digger' jewellery took place in the gold rushes to Western Australia in the 1890s. Following fashionable forms of the turn of the century, the iconic pick and shovel was applied to bar brooches and stick pins, along with raw nuggets of varying sizes. Nuggets were now worked into masculine jewellery in watch chains and fobs, as well as stick pins. The name of the goldfield or town was often fretworked onto an arch surmounting the composition.