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Antique Spanish Hat Badge Pendant Carved in Jet

$10,000List Price

About the Item

BADGE WITH ST. JAMES THE GREAT Northern Spain, 16th century Silver, jet Weight 18.2 grams; dimensions 44 × 43 × 12 mm Round pendant with high-relief image of St. James the Great of Santiago de Compostela carved in jet. The saint is flanked by two pilgrims (their heads defaced); each holds a staff and rosary in his hand. Silver mount with plain flat backplate, corded wire surround and toothed edge as setting. Four pendant loops for sewing onto a hat or cloak. According to the Roman naturalist Pliny, jet, the material of which this pin was made, prevented snakebite and was “thrown up by the sea.” The first quality would certainly have been reassuring for a pilgrim who owned this object and who had to make long journeys over unfamiliar terrain. The second quality made jet an especially fitting material to honor St. James, given that his body arrived in Spain mysteriously, carried there “by the sea” from the Holy Land. Santiago de Compostela was a major center for jet carving from the late Middle Ages, and highly polished jet was a desirable and common material for pilgrimage souvenirs. One even finds scallop shells, the pilgrim’s badge for Santiago, carved of jet (see the scallop shell beads on nos. 23 and 24). Some of the imagery of this small roundel is difficult to decipher, but reference to a larger sculpture of St. James, also carved in jet and surely also a pilgrimage memento, clarifies the details. What we are looking at is two pilgrims kneeling to either side of the larger figure of the saint. (Jet fractures easily, so the loss of the heads of the pilgrims on this badge is not surprising, although the precision of the loss may implicate some sort of deliberate damage.) The sculpture from the Hispanic Society of New York includes the inscription “Pray for us, St. James,” clarifying the nature of both pieces as intercessory; that is, the pilgrims wished for James to act as intermediary for them before God. All three figures on the roundel hold staves and rosary beads, again identifying each as a praying pilgrim, a desirable status reflecting the aspirations of the owner, committed to the journey and hoping that it would bring him or her religious reward. James himself was typically characterized as a pilgrim in medieval imagery, and here we see him wearing a warm capacious cloak, a wide-brimmed hat, and in addition to his staff, carrying what appears to be a water canteen. The roundel was at one time modified to be worn or attached as a pendant, but it was originally intended as a badge. It has four loops (none of which is at the top of the roundel), which would have allowed it to be sewn to a cloak or a hat (see p. 128). Given that the pilgrim would have worn this roundel prominently displayed on his or her clothing, we can see its imagery as an act of self-definition—a gesture declaring that the wearer is a pilgrim, has been to Santiago, and has taken James as a patron saint and role model. Comparisons and Literature: For variants of the type and iconography of St. James the Great of Santiago de Compostela in jet, see Franco Mata 2005, pp. 169-212. Cf. various sixteenth-century examples of St. James in jet in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (exh. cat., Wallfahrt kennt keine Grenzen 1984, no. 211 and pp. 125-47); on a rosary in the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid; a statuette in the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid (exh. cat., El arte de la plata y de las joyas en la España de Carlos V 2000, nos. 107 and 108); and slightly later in combination with a higa in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Madrid (exh. cat., La Joyería Española 1998, no. 19). For the Compostela workshop of this period, cf. a pax in the Museo de Pontevedra (Franco Mata 2005, p. 183, fig. 30).

Metal:
Silver
Weight:
18.2 g
Dimensions:
Width: 1.7 in (43 mm)Depth: 0.48 in (12 mm)Length: 1.74 in (44 mm)
Place of Origin:
Spain
Period:
16th Century
Date of Manufacture:
c. 16th century
Condition:
Additions or alterations made to the original: At one time modified to be worn or attached as a pendant, unknown date and location of modification. Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Chicago, IL
Reference Number:
Seller: J-350261stDibs: LU2334213263562

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