Pendant

This pendant was inspired by the superb sculptural jewels of animals and birds made by Renaissance goldsmiths in the sixteenth century. Both the front and back are decorated with equal care. It is a fine jewel, but the enamelling and the modelling give rise to doubts about its age. There was such a heavy demand for Renaissance jewels in the nineteenth century that many were made to meet it. Of these, some were openly made in the Neo-Renaissance style and were sold as new work, while others, like this jewel, are unmarked. We now believe it was probably made in the nineteenth century. Whatever the original intention of the jeweller who made it, by 1910, when the jewel was bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum, it was described as Spanish and sixteenth century.