Pin, cravat pin

Cravat or scarf pin made of a polished fragment of pink and grey granite in a silver collet. Inscribed around the rim is ‘CHIP OF CLEOPATRA’S OBELISK 1878’.
Cleopatra’s Needle is a granite obelisk which now stands on Victoria Embankment. For centuries, the obelisk, cut from quarries in Aswan in about 1475 BC, stood at Alexandria. By the early years of the 19th century it had toppled into the sand. In 1819 it was presented to the British by the Turkish Viceroy of Egypt, Mohammed Ali. However, it was not until 1877 that the enormous problem of transporting the 186 ton obelisk was solved, and in 1878 it arrived in London.