Berlin ironwork tiara

Description

A Berlin ironwork tiara in cast iron, c. 1825. It has a crescent-shaped band decorated with gothic architectural motifs; from this spring five decorated circles topped by five miniature gothic windows. Between these there is an acanthus leaf decoration, one leaf of which is damaged. This tiara, though not signed, is almost certainly by Johann C.P. Geiss, as it compares in detail with a well-documented Geiss necklace now in the Kunstgewerbe Museum in Berlin-Kopenick. Tiaras are very rare among surviving examples of Berlin ironwork jewellery.