Butterfly Pin

Besides buying the decorated cat pin and the ceramic sheep pin at Westlake Goodwill the other day, I also purchased a butterfly pin. I'd never seen anything quite like it before.

It was still attached to its original card, which looked kind of old. The gold letters on the fuzzy card say " Princess Handmade." Here's what the back of the card said:

Hmmm. Real butterfly wings? Gold thread? Even though this piece was more than the usual one dollar for a pin, I decided to get it.

Back home, I did a bit of Googling. Apparently a lot of these pins were made, mostly during the 1940s. Some even came with matching earrings:

On this site, I found two "vintage butterfly pins" for sale for $80.  On an auction site, I found these that had sold for $40. Mine looks similar to the one at the left.

Since the pin I bought is vintage—more than 50 years old, I doubt I'll wear it. 

I guess I didn't do too badly pricewise, though—I paid $1.59.

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