Bracelet

In the winter of 1851, Countess Pulasky of Hungary gave Frances Appleton Longfellow, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s wife, a gift of two black-lacquered Berlin cast-iron bracelets with a matching filigree brooch while visiting the couple as part of a broader trip to the United States. She was accompanied by her husband and the noted Hungarian patriot Louis Kossuth, who greatly admired Henry Longfellow’s poetry; the admiration was mutual, for Longfellow knew all about Kossuth’s prodemocracy efforts in Hungary and welcomed him enthusiastically. Most likely this jewelry suite was made in the Berlin foundry of Devaranne and Son, for similar ornaments by this firm were displayed at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851.