Miscellaneous Mining Items/Mining Stick Pins

Miscellaneous Mining Items

Mining Stick Pins.JPG - MINING STICK PIN COLLECTION - (Note - By clicking on the original image icon to the right of the descriptive text and then clicking on the photo, an enlarged view of the photo can be seen.) This collection of stick pins with a focus on mining associated themes was started and developed over a period of 30 years by mining artifact collector and dealer guru Leo Stambaugh. I've been fortunate to add a number of items to it as the collection grows. Stick pins were fashionable from the late eighteenth century to the early years of the twentieth century, a period of great social change and an enormous spread of wealth. The stick pin was a personal adornment reflecting the personality and achievements of the wearer and a statement of the wearer’s wealth. The wearing of stick pins began as a practical method of securing the voluminous neckwear that was worn both as a practical way of keeping warm but also of staying fashionable in the late eighteenth century. The first stick pins were simple and consisted of clusters of stones or single stones or plain gold. By the mid nineteenth century, jewelers were producing more intricate designs of gold and gems depicting a large variety of shapes and themes. This allowed jewelers to experiment not only with new techniques but also with new motifs thus creating tiny works of art. The discovery of gold and the California gold rush during this period provided a new theme for the jewelers’ art, that of the gold nugget stick pin. Both solid nuggets and probably rarer still, the gold in quartz matrix pieces, became an adornment of the wealthy miner and mine owner. Other mining related objects including miners’ candlesticks, picks, crossed hammer and gad symbols, gold pans, carbide lamps etc. provided new stick pin creations. Of special interest are the miniature gold candlesticks, some plain, and others with mother of pearl candles and colored stone flames that were awarded to graduates of some of the nation’s mining schools. The oldest mining school in the US, the Columbia School of Mines in New York City, was started in 1864. Around the turn of the century, graduates of the school were awarded miniature miners’ candlestick stick pins as a symbol of their achievement. Other mining schools at Berkeley, California and the South Dakota School of Mines also presented these miniature candlestick stick pins to new graduates. These candlestick stick pins are rare today and highly sought by collectors.With the end of the nineteenth century and the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the ascendancy of King Edward VII to the English throne heralded a golden age of riches and enjoyment for the privileged few. The Edwardian age was probably the last period in history when the wearing of stick pins was a social statement of wealth. With the start of World War I in August 1914, the Edwardian era came to an end. The years following the end of the war were radically different from anything before, and had more in common with today than with the Edwardian or Victorian eras. A growing informality in dress especially during the day led to a decline in the wearing of stick pins and neckwear had become simpler and the forerunner of the modern tie and knot had emerged. The stick pin no longer served any practical purpose and was purely an item of masculine decoration.

Mining Stick Pins | MINING STICK PIN COLLECTION - (Note - By clicking on the original image icon to the right of the descriptive text and then clicking on the photo, an enlarged view of the photo can be seen.) This collection of stick pins with a focus on mining associated themes was started and developed over a period of 30 years by mining artifact collector and dealer guru Leo Stambaugh. I've been fortunate to add a number of items to it as the collection grows. Stick pins were fashionable from the late eighteenth century to the early years of the twentieth century, a period of great social change and an enormous spread of wealth. The stick pin was a personal adornment reflecting the personality and achievements of the wearer and a statement of the wearer’s wealth. The wearing of stick pins began as a practical method of securing the voluminous neckwear that was worn both as a practical way of keeping warm but also of staying fashionable in the late eighteenth century. The first stick pins were simple and consisted of clusters of stones or single stones or plain gold. By the mid nineteenth century, jewelers were producing more intricate designs of gold and gems depicting a large variety of shapes and themes. This allowed jewelers to experiment not only with new techniques but also with new motifs thus creating tiny works of art. The discovery of gold and the California gold rush during this period provided a new theme for the jewelers’ art, that of the gold nugget stick pin. Both solid nuggets and probably rarer still, the gold in quartz matrix pieces, became an adornment of the wealthy miner and mine owner. Other mining related objects including miners’ candlesticks, picks, crossed hammer and gad symbols, gold pans, carbide lamps etc. provided new stick pin creations. Of special interest are the miniature gold candlesticks, some plain, and others with mother of pearl candles and colored stone flames that were awarded to graduates of some of the nation’s mining schools. The oldest mining school in the US, the Columbia School of Mines in New York City, was started in 1864. Around the turn of the century, graduates of the school were awarded miniature miners’ candlestick stick pins as a symbol of their achievement. Other mining schools at Berkeley, California and the South Dakota School of Mines also presented these miniature candlestick stick pins to new graduates. These candlestick stick pins are rare today and highly sought by collectors. With the end of the nineteenth century and the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the ascendancy of King Edward VII to the English throne heralded a golden age of riches and enjoyment for the privileged few. The Edwardian age was probably the last period in history when the wearing of stick pins was a social statement of wealth. With the start of World War I in August 1914, the Edwardian era came to an end. The years following the end of the war were radically different from anything before, and had more in common with today than with the Edwardian or Victorian eras. A growing informality in dress especially during the day led to a decline in the wearing of stick pins and neckwear had become simpler and the forerunner of the modern tie and knot had emerged. The stick pin no longer served any practical purpose and was purely an item of masculine decoration.

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