File:2008 T751b (FindID 241280).jpg

English: A gold pendant with settings for stones and the reverse has cells, some of which contain enamel, probably 16th century in date.

Dr Dora Thornton of the British Museum writes: 'The pendant consists of a dart-shaped stem springing from a trefoil arrangement of two circular lateral lobes above a central, lozenge-shaped terminal. There is a suspension loop at the top with a small gold disc to strengthen the join to the stem on either side, and there is a small ring soldered to each of the lobes for sub-pendants, which are missing. The pendant is bifacial with four empty collets of gold strip for stone inlays forming the front. The basal margins of the collets are punched with fine dots imitating filigree; in each of the interstices is a small, gold insert grooved rather like a fan, or scallop, and a short length of wire rises from the centre, perhaps originally to secure a pearl, but it is broken off just above the top of the collets. On the back there is a cloisonné enamelled setting in each of the four elements, springing from a small, central cruciform setting of white enamel with round arms. The stem has a narrow, pointillé frame round a border of decayed, blue enamel enclosing an empty central setting, while each of the lateral lobes has a scroll with traces of black enamel enclosed on either side by a pointillé border. The terminal lozenge has a central, white disc enclosed by concentric, pointillé and black-enamelled borders and there is an arc of green enamel on either side of the top of the frame. The concave backs of the fan-shaped inserts at the base of the stem are also enamelled in green between V-shaped cloisons. Much of the enamel is missing, particularly from the side lobes, and the walls of the collets are a little distorted.

The artefact has puzzled several curators at the BM as to its dating, but comparison with the settings of 16th Century cameos in the collection suggest that this is likely to be its date. See especially the cameo setting on an object recently found at Fotheringham Castle in Suffolk which has similar swirling enamelled scrolls in blue and a similar construction of the gold mount: Hugh Tait, Seven thousand years of Jewellery, British Museum exhibition catalogue, London 1986, no. 550.

Probably 16th Century.'