Catherine Wheel Brooch

2023

Anodised aluminium, 3D printed nylon, stainless steel

Photographs by John Moore

Moore is one of a group of jewellery artists commissioned by Robert Hiller to make a brooch inspired by the legend of St. Catherine of Alexandria, whose attribute as a Saint is a broken spiked wheel. Catherine was a Christian and a virgin, martyred for her Christian beliefs in the early fourth century, at the hands of the emperor Maxentius. According to the traditional narrative, when Catherine would not yield to the emperor by way of torture he proposed marriage, but Catherine refused declaring that her spouse was Jesus Christ. The furious emperor condemned her to death with a spiked ‘breaking wheel’. However, at her touch, the wheel shattered, killing four thousand heathens, according to one legend. The emperor Maxentius ordered her to be beheaded and she herself ordered the execution to commence.

Moore chose to base his brooch on the Catherine Wheel firework, incorporating some red detail to represent the blood of St. Catherine.

All the brooches are gifted to Robert’s good friend, jewellery historian Katherine Purcell of Wartski London, and will form part of an exhibition entitled ‘From Function to Fantasy: The Brooch’ at Wartski, 1st-12th October 2025.