Antique Pre-Columbian Gecko or Lizard High Karat Gold Pendant

A wonderful piece of Annette Nancarrow Mexican jewelry. Nancarrow was an American artist and jewelry maker and friend of Frida Kahlo. She had colleg...

A fine intaglio pendant fob. In 14k yellow gold. With an intaglio carved portrait of a man carved at the center a framed carnelian disc. The patterned frame has a filigree pattern and is set with a bale that allows it to be worn on a necklace or as a watch fob. Simply a great antique intaglio...

A very fine antique crucifix or pendant cross. In 14k yellow gold and decoratively engraved to both the front and back. The center of each side of the pendant is engraved with ini...

A very fine Victorian carnelian and gold pendant or charm. With a carved intaglio of an ancient Roman soldier set in 14 karat gold. Simply a fine piece! Date: 19th Century Overal...

A very fine turtle pendant or charm for a bracelet. In 14k yellow gold. With an engraved pattern on shell. Simply a wonderful turtle charm! Date: 20th C...

A very fine antique gold & agate spinner charm pendant. With a smooth oval slice of agate bezel-set in 14k gold and a hinge pinned on each side so that ...

Alex Jona design collection, hand crafted in Italy, 18 karat yellow gold necklace suspending a brushed Geko lizard pendant. Alex Jona jewels stand out,...

This is an 18K gold Peruvian hand crafted large brooch pendant. It depicts a sun open in the center showing a carved Pre-Columbian Art Peruvian scene of an Inca and a llama. The scene has a scalloped frame. The brooch pendant is hallmarked “Arte Orfebre...

Like Alexander Calder's handmade wire jewelry since 1929, whose smallest one-of-a-kind sculptural subjects ranged from aerial acrobats and dancers to mono...

Tumbaga gold condor pendant from Costa Rica. Very rare archeological pre-Columbian piece from the Central American region, between Costa Rica and Panama. Created by the Chiriki cul...

AMULET PENDANT WITH FIGA Spain, c. 1620–1630 Jet, silver, and enamel Weight 60.7 grams; dimensions 85 × 49 × 18 mm Large pendant in the shape of a hand carved from jet with a clinched fist in the figa (Spanish higa) gesture. In the palm of the hand is a heart carved in relief and on the back a six-ray star in a circle. The silver mount covers the wrist like a cuff and is decorated with a frilled border, and on the front with collet-set bosses with silver C-scrolls against blue enamel; on the back is a roundel in relief with floral motif. Domed base for the pendant loop in pea-pod form. The figa (also fica or higa) represents an age-old symbol of protection against the evil eye and other demonic threats. Its origins were pagan and buried deep in antiquity. Roman examples, such as one found recently in an archeological excavation in London, also make it clear that the protective qualities are based in a sexual symbolism–particularly the power of the phallus. The Roman bone figa/phallus in effect represents the phallus twice; that is, the gesture made by the figa hand is generally explained as fingers representing the female genitalia (vulva) penetrated by the phallus of the thumb. But other interpretations are less specific, including explanations that the left hand is the feminine principle, and the right hand is the masculine. In Spain, jet figa are common; we see one in the portrait of Anne of Austria the infanta (p. 75). That is not to say that the objects are not sumptuous or treasured. Jet was a very valuable material, and in many examples like this one, the figa is embellished with beautiful enameling or is even gem-studded. Comparable objects occur in equally sumptuous materials such as rock crystal. The enameled setting allows a dating of these objects that otherwise might prove difficult, given that the production of such objects in Spain is so consistent over centuries. Indeed, there is another, even more elaborately carved example in this collection, attached to the “magic belt” (no. 9). That example may belong to an earlier group. That figa includes deeply excavated carving, including on the upper surface, an M-shaped design that Walter Leo Hildburgh links to the heart shape (as it occurs more explicitly on this example). Hildburgh argues that its presence is especially common on these objects and that it originally represented the Sacred Heart of Mary...

18 Karat Tricolor Gold Crucifix With Engraved Details. 1 Inch Long Including Bale. Finished Weight Is 1.4 Grams.