Portuguese Emerald Pendant

Gold Filigree Bow Cross Pendant with Columbian Emeralds

This fine crucifix-shaped pendant is of fine lace-like gold filigree and twenty irregularly-shaped, old-cut emeralds in box settings. The crucifix is in pendant form beneath a bow. The item can be worn either as a pendant or as a brooch, a brooch pin having been fitted to the reverse.

It is very much 18th and early 18th century in Portuguese style. Most probably it was made in Lisbon, but possibly was also manufactured in one of the Spanish/Portugese outposts in South America, particularly given the presence of emeralds which were mined in Colombia, though of course by that stage Colombian emeralds were traded across the world. Portugal also benefited from the fabulous quantities of gold found in Brazil.

Emeralds in the 17th-18th centuries and earlier came from the mountainous Chivor district and the lower-lying province of Los Muzos north-west of Bogota, Colombia. It was not until the 1560s that the Spanish had a secure footing in the area and were able to exploit the emerald deposits. The stones were recovered from shallow, open-cut mines. Lighter, brighter emeralds such as the examples here were known as

verde alegre (‘happy green’) emeralds (Forsyth, 2013, p. 134).

The pendant here is in fine condition. It is stable and wearable.

Forsyth, H., The Cheapside Hoard: London’s Lost Jewels, Museum of London, 2013.

d’Orey, L.,

Five Centuries of Jewellery: National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon, Zwemmer Publishers, 1995.

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