De forti Dulcedo

Mounted pin-brooch, 2007 aterials: 20ct gold, yellow-green citrine, yellow-green sapphire, 18ct white gold pin

‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness’ was, for me, like many children of my generation, not a line about a feat of strength performed by Samson (Judges 14:14) but the caption to the beautiful illustration of a dead lion (I was told it was sleeping, which has confused it into memory) surrounded by a swarm of industrious bees. This vignette graced the yellow-green and gold tin of Tate & Lyle’s Golden Syrup – tacitly suggesting that the contents were akin to honey. Many years later, I came across a beautiful wood-cut, I think by Joannes Posuel, in which a rampant and angry lion carries a banner declaring ‘de forti dulcedo’ amid an equally angry swarm of bees, each the size of a black-bird.

height (without pin): 59mm width: 20mm ount: mixed media Signed and dated artist’s no: 416.MP-B.07 hidden alche y: 213-4

My own little jewel, with its similar disregard for common scale, was suggested when I brought together two stones of different mineral origins (one sapphire, the other citrine), but identical golden-syrup colour: which is Tate and which is Lyle, however, I have yet to decide...