Necklace

The production of coral jewellery was a major industry in the south of Italy from prehistoric times. Tourists loved to buy coral jewellery in fashionable shapes, but it was also very popular with Italian women, who valued it for its colour and amuletic qualities.

This necklace has a rectangular snap clasp, decorated with an enamelled flower, probably a pansy. Clasps like this are very common on French traditional jewellery, and this one may have come from France. The pansy is a popular motif in French jewellery, where it represents remembrance.

This necklace was bought as part of the Castellani collection of Italian Peasant Jewellery at the International Exhibition, Paris, 1867.