Antique Tie Pins
A slender pin with a decorative head, worn through a cravat, tie or lapel to hold the neckwear in place and show a little gold at the throat.
Antique Tie Pins
Pins worn to secure a cravat or necktie became widespread in the early 19th century as neckwear was formalised, and the small ornamental-headed stick pin stayed standard men's jewellery through the Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco decades. The horizontal bar brooch, worn at a collar or blouse, developed alongside it and is catalogued with tie pins.
The heading covers stick pins, tie pins and bar brooches together. Brooch appears in about half the titles on Sellingantiques, stick in a quarter and bar brooch in a fifth, so a listing filed as a tie pin may be described in its own title as a bar brooch or a lapel pin.
Gold dominates, in seven titles out of ten, and the head is usually gem- or pearl-set. Diamond is named in over a third of titles and pearl in a quarter. Four gold standards turn up in the samples: 9ct, 14ct, 15ct and 18ct, with 15ct pointing to a British piece made before 1932.
The dealers' own dating runs from 1860 to 1960, Edwardian and Victorian leading, then the 1920s and 1930s. Beyond the plain gem heads sit sporting and hunting subjects - a running fox, a hunting bugle, horseshoes, a jockey cap - and a small persistent seam of naval, yacht club and Masonic badges.
Range And Quality
Stated stones lift a pin. Titles carrying a weight - a 2.25ct old cut diamond, a 12.20ct garnet in a jockey cap, a ruby with diamond surround - sit in the upper part of the range, while an unweighted gem head sits below them. The same goes for pearls: natural pearls and a pink pearl are stated on the dearer pieces, plain pearl runs throughout.
Metal follows the same line. Platinum and 18ct hold the top end; 9ct and chrome hold the bottom, and the cheapest things in the archive are the chrome and enamel gents' pins of about 1930, of which three near-identical examples have appeared. A signature counts too - the highest-priced sampled listings are the only ones naming a Paris house.
Subject matters as much as substance. A pin with something to look at - carved and painted rock crystal, enamel work, a miniature portrait of a lady, an identified naval or club badge - carries more than a plain gem on a stem. The one-off oddities belong in this group: a Danish silver bear, a prospector's gold nugget, a classical mask.
Antique Tie Pins Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for tie pins, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
The most expensive tie pin ever sold on Sellingantiques was an Art Deco platinum and diamond arrow brooch and tie pin, in February 2023.
The Antique Tie Pins Glossary
- Stick pin
- A long straight pin with a small decorative head, worn through a tie or lapel. Named in a quarter of the titles in this category.
- Bar brooch
- A horizontal pin brooch, gem- or pearl-set, worn at a collar or blouse. It accounts for about a fifth of titles and is filed alongside the tie pins.
- 15ct
- A British gold standard used until 1932. It turns up repeatedly in these titles beside 9ct, 14ct and 18ct.
- Rose cut
- An early flat-backed diamond cut with facets rising to a point. Old cut and old brilliant, both hand-faceted, appear in the same way.
- Jabot pin
- A pin with an ornament at each end, passed through a frill or lapel. One has come up in this category.
- Sweetheart brooch
- A regimental or naval badge made as jewellery for a serviceman's family. A Royal Navy example sits in this category.
Antique Tie Pins: Frequently Asked Questions
Why is a tie pin listed as a brooch?
The category takes in stick pins, tie pins and bar brooches, and dealers catalogue them by their own reading. Brooch appears in roughly half the titles, stick in a quarter.
So a piece filed under tie pins may be titled a bar brooch or a lapel pin. The mounting is the thing to read, not the heading.
What metals do these pins come in?
Gold leads, in seven titles out of ten, across 9ct, 14ct, 15ct and 18ct. A 15ct mark indicates a British piece made before 1932.
Platinum and 18ct white gold turn up at the upper end. Chrome appears at the other, in enamel gents' pins of about 1930.
How old are antique tie pins usually?
The dealers' own dating spans 1860 to 1960, with 23 of the sampled listings carrying a clean year. Edwardian and Victorian pieces lead, followed by the 1920s and 1930s.
A few titles reach further back, claiming Georgian and Regency dating, and both of those are stick pins. Dates in a title and dates in the structured field don't always agree.
Are sporting subjects common on pin heads?
They recur. A running fox with a riding crop, a hunting bugle, two horseshoes, a jockey cap set with a garnet and a fox in carved rock crystal have all come through.
Alongside them sits a smaller seam of badges: a Royal Naval Crown, a yacht club pin, a Masonic pin, a naval sweetheart brooch.
Which stones turn up most often?
Diamond is named in over a third of titles, pearl in a quarter. Rose cut, old cut and old brilliant diamonds all appear.
Beyond those, the bar brooches bring aquamarine, opal, garnet and ruby. Baroque and natural pearls are stated separately from plain pearl.
How many antique tie pins come up for sale?
Around seven a year on Sellingantiques, and 25 different dealers have listed one.
That means the category is spread thin. Most dealers have handled a single example rather than a run of them.