This gold brooch was bequeathed to Dorothy Walker by Charlotte Shaw (1857–1943), wife of the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. The brooch has an inscription in Persian script referring to Fadlallah Shah as ‘The protector of the religion of Muhammad’. Emery Walker travelled extensively and Dorothy continued to go abroad after her father's death, accompanied by friends. The Walkers often received gifts from friends who knew their interests, and their home reflects the importance they placed on the arts and crafts of a variety of cultures. George Bernard Shaw attended meetings of the Hammersmith Democratic Federation and Socialist League, of which Walker was an active member. He was a frequent visitor to the Walkers' home in the 1890s and travelled with Emery Walker when the Art Workers' Guild visited Venice in 1891. In 1898 Shaw married Charlotte Payne- Townsend, an Irishwoman who was a socialist, a radical and a campaigner for women's rights. (see www.emerywalker.org.uk 'The Islamic Connection') The brooch was contained in an old envelope in which is written in pen, [in the handwriting of Charlotte Shaw, wife of George Bernard Shaw]: "I should like to be given to Dorothy Walker my Indian Gold Brooch"; [if so it was bequeathed when Charlotte Shaw died in 1943]

Record ID:00960
Dimensions:diameter — 3.3cm maximum.
depth — 0.5cm maximum.
Classification:Jewellery
Date:1920
Date:1920