VINTAGE SILVER CHINESE DRAGON BROOCH

This unusual Sterling Silver dragon pin was made in 1994-5 and has a vintage amount of oxidization. I have only lightly removed some of this to delineate the detail as I think it creates a fantastic contrast. An unusual find and perfect gift for a lover of myth or fantasy, this dragon is solid and heavy at 28.9g. 58X50mm, so a substantial piece. 

This unisex gift is versatile as a hat, scarf, or lapel pin.

See pictures for details.

The reptilian embodiment of primordial power, a creature so Mesozoic that the human imagination seems to have stretched back 70 million years to give it form. In myth & legend, the dragon and serpent were often synonymous - in China for example, and also in Greece where large snakes were called drakonates, a word suggesting sharp-sightedness. In Greek myth, dragons guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides and the Golden Fleece. The Norse hero Sigurd and the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf also slew treasure-guarding dragons.

In Asia, and particularly in China, the dragon is a symbol of supernatural power untrammelled by moral disapproval. The five-clawed turquoise dragon Lung was the motif of the Han dynasty and symbolised the active yang principle, the East, the rising sun, fertility, happiness and the gifts of spiritual knowledge and immortality. The dragon-king is prominent in Japanese folklore also.