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Antique Amuletic DozenRockCrystals CagedRing MedievalStyle GiltBronze Pendant

About the Item

This antique amuletic bronze framed pendant cages a dozen 7mm-diameter single-cut rock crystals that each feature a table-cut decagon crown, deep pavilion, 21 facets and uncut girdle, while the culets range from off-center to blunted. They are tightly set within four linked rings to overlap at the same angle in a sparkling single row. Seeming to retain a little of its original yellow-gold gilding on just the interior, the frame that surrounds each of the four sections of three crystals enables them to reflect pale-yellow-and-lime light when the pendant is viewed from certain angles. Suggesting French heritage, the Medieval Frankish culture in northern France made jewelry in similar segmented or openwork shapes of wheels or whorls, which were worn as gem-decorated disk-shaped brooches or gold-caged rock-crystal sphere pendants. But gem faceting as we know it was not widely practiced until the 16th Century with advanced European lapidary tools, mostly in France and the Netherlands. As the single cuts on these crystals predate Baroque and brilliant rose-cuts, it could date to the 16th Century while rock crystal remained more popular in European pendants than diamonds. Among its collected decorative objects dating to the 1500s, TheMet museum notes in its online descriptions that during this century "rock crystal was priced at its weight in gold". Conservatively, the pendant could be from as late as the mid-18th Century during the Louis XV period when gilt bronze chandeliers with rock-crystal pendants were stylish. Like kinetic chandelier crystals, the pendant bail with jump-ring enables turning movement while dangling for maximum shimmer. Originally, it may have been worn as a single earring via a ribbon tied around the ear or hair, or sewn onto stiff fabric such as a hat. While it is unclear if there are specs on or in the crystals, as they can be individually rotated, they may be enhanced by a professional cleaning. An antiquity like this pendant may have motivated haute-couture fashion-designer Gabriel "Coco" Chanel's favorite fine-jewelry artist Fulco di Verdura to create his iconic mid-century gold-cage ring filled with smaller loose cut-gems. Earlier, the duo had traveled together exploring museum-collected European cultural artifacts, whose designs and materials inspired some of their best known works. The 21st Century "Caged Collection" of loose cut-gems--developed by the ongoing business of Verdura in homage to its founder--is the only jewelry that we could find that approximates the curvilinear-cage design of this antique crystal-filled pendant, while it has not reproduced one like ours.

Metal:

Gilt Metal,Bronze,Copper

Stone:

Crystal,Rock Crystal

Stone Cut:

Single Cut

Weight:

5 g

Dimensions:

Width: 1.25 in (31.75 mm)Depth: 0.25 in (6.35 mm)Diameter: 1.25 in (31.75 mm)Length: 1.5 in (38.1 mm)

Style:

Renaissance