Dead Cat brooch

Despite spending about 2 hours trolling around the absolutely rain-sodden Bicester Village fashion outlet in Oxfordshire this weekend, Her Indoors came home empty handed - save for this little brooch.

We had spent a couple of hours in the Ashmolean Museum, and saw some fabulous stuff as usual, but the Egyptian Section was closed for a refurb. On the way out through the gift shop, H.I. spotted it and when she caught up with me later, told me about it but couldn't decide whether or not she should get it, so we went back for a second look and I got it for her because I thought it was really funny and such a mad but charming idea.

It is not a copy of any existing piece of jewelry, but it is based on those insane, ancient Egyptian, mummified cats that you can see in the British Museum, where the dead cat has been bound up in linen to form a stick-shape where the body and tail are, with a stylised head sticking out of the top which has a shocked and undignified expression on it, as if the animal cannot understand how it got into this situation in the first place. They have tried to simulate the wonderful, yellow gold of ancient Egypt in the base-metal, and haven't done too bad a job.

H.I. has been sporting it since monday. It will probably serve as a good ice-breaker at parties, when strangers ask what the hell it is supposed to be.