The Victorians had a thing for folklore, fairies and ghost stories. Greek mythology offered them another kind of escape — to a world where nature could be wild and wonderful, a world filled with stories of love, danger and transformation, not to mention extraordinary beasts. These myths provided a fantasy alternative to the sometimes harsh realities of the age’s industrialization and rigid social codes.
It’s not surprising that snakes — enduringly mysterious, otherworldly and independent — became for the Victorians a totemic symbol of this fascinating alternative universe. For 7,000 years, they had wound their through the myths and rituals of the world’s civilizations and served as talismanic presences in jewelry.
In ancient Egypt, the fearsome rearing cobra, or uraeus, adorned crowns and amulets as a emblem of power and sovereignty. The ancient Greeks were drawn to a very different kind of serpent: the gentle, nonvenomous Aesculapian snake, associated with Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing. Coiled around the deity’s staff, it remains one of the most recognizable symbols of the health-care profession.
This gold snake necklace, dating to around 1840, is a particularly sweet example of Victorian ophidian jewelry. Crafted with soft facial features and swirling, hand-carved foliage-patterned scales, the serpent comes bearing a gift: a heart-shaped locket. This adds a personal dimension, suggesting that the snake watches over both the necklace wearer and the precious memory held within the pendant dangling from its mouth. The necklace is set with five vivid emeralds — one in the locket, the others extending from the serpent’s crown along its coiled body, lending it a powerful intensity. Their graduated sizes, meanwhile, draw the eye along the sinuous form and highlight the beautiful goldsmithing of its anatomy, articulated in a way that almost resembles fused strings of golden beads.
“Royal tastes have always steered fashion trends, so when Prince Albert proposed to Queen Victoria, in 1839, with a snake ring with an emerald head, it caused a sensation, with snakes suddenly dominating the jewelry scene,” says Ilias Kapsalis, manager of the historic Piccadilly-based London jeweler Bentley & Skinner, a Royal Warrant holder since 1901, which is offering the jewel on 1stDibs. “The circular shape of this necklace, known as an ouroboros, is particularly significant because it signifies an unbreakable continuum representing strength and eternity.”
The jeweler purchased the necklace from an English family who had owned it for generations. It was passed down by a great aunt, who lovingly preserved its unusual, pear-shaped box. “The box is original, but when we acquired it, the outer silk was completely shredded, so I had it replaced. It now bears our current logo,” says Kapsalis.
“If you look closely at the head and locket area, you’ll notice three types of gold — white, yellow and red — which showcase the skills of the goldsmith and his desire to enhance the scroll and foliate motifs, lending the snake more character,” says Kapsalis. “What’s more, these motifs extend into very expressive, leaf-like eyebrows. What I love is this balance of naturalistic and imagined features, mixing observed realism with a sense of playfulness and inventiveness. To me, this speaks of a rare and very considered kind of craftsmanship.”
