This brooch is a beautifully preserved souvenir from the 1835 appearance of Halley's Comet, which has been recorded by humans since 240 BCE. It was the British astronomer Edmund Halley who gave the comet its name in 1705 when he realized it was the same celestial entity noted by the ancient Greeks, Babylonians, and, most famously, the medieval English, who took its 1066 sighting as an omen of political strife. (Their king, Harold II, was murdered in battle by William the Conqueror later that year.) Made in 9k gold with foil-backed garnets.