Victorian Carved Banded Onyx Tie Pin of a Man’s Head

A very unusual tie pin in its original case.  It was retailed by Dobson & Sons, jewellers to the Queen and based at no 32 Piccadilly in London.  Dobson and Sons was a long established firm selling silver and jewellery.  Thomas Wilkinson began trading in 1814.  Wilkinson’s son took over the business in 1845 in partnership with Henry Holmes Dobson, operating under the name of Wilkinson & Dobson. The two dissolved their partnership in 1851, and Dobson continued to run the business alone under his own name. In 1877 the firm’s name changed to Dobson & Sons when Thomas William Dobson and Henry Holmes Dobson II entered into partnership with their father.  At the death of Henry Holmes Dobson II in 1886, the business was continued by Thomas William Dobson until his death in 1905.  Afterwards the business was continued by Percy Holmes Dobson and Charles Westcott Dobson.  So this dates the tie pin to around 1880.  It is composed of a banded sardonyx that has been finely carved to represent a man’s head wearing a helmet.  The carving is so clever as it uses the natural banding in the onyx. It may have been a special commission. All our tie pins come with a stopper at the end of the pin.