pendent jewels by hans collaert, etc.
Probably the finest example of the numerous pendants in the form of a single figure, particularly of those whose formation is suggested by a large baroque pearl, is the triton or merman jewel in the possession of Lord Clanricarde. The figure, whose body is made of a single pearl, with head and arms of white enamel and tail of brilliant yellow, green, and blue, wields a jaw-bone in the right hand, and an enamelled satyr's mask as a shield in the left. This magnificent Italian jewel was brought from India by Lord Canning. Pendants of somewhat similar character, often representing a mermaid holding a comb in one hand and a mirror in the other, are to be found in the Vienna, Windsor, Waddesdon, and other collections. They are almost invariably of German workmanship. Amongst many other jewels of similar formation the most important is a pendant in the form of a dragon in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre. The modelling and general form of this jewel is very fine, and its enamel-work, chiefly of white and light blue, in the design of circles and chevrons, especially on the wings, is most admirable. It is Spanish work of the highest quality, and was bequeathed by Baron Davillier, who procured it in Spain (Frontispiece).
Of other animal forms are those of a lion, a dromedary, a dog (termed a talbot) (Pl. XXXIV, 2), and a fish; birds include, besides a dove (the symbol of the Holy Ghost), eagles, cocks, parrots, and pelicans. Fine examples of the two latter are at South Kensington from the Treasury at Saragossa: one is mounted with a large hyacinth in front[162] (Pl. XXXIV, 1), the other is represented plucking at a blood-red carbuncle set in her breast.
Among miscellaneous pendants worn in Renaissance times attached to the neck-chain mention must be made of whistles. These (like the "bo'sons pipe" of to-day) were formed, as has been shown (p. 190), of a pipe or tube, sometimes in the form of a pistol, through which the air is carried into a hole in a ball, thus producing the sound. Whistles of this kind were designed by Dürer and Brosamer, and they are shown suspended at the neck in the engraved portraits of William, Duke of Juliers, and of John of Leyden by Aldegrever, in the portrait of a man by Lucis Cranach the elder (1472-1553) in the Louvre, and in portraits of the Margrave Philibert of Baden (1549) by Hans Schöpfer the elder at Munich and Nuremberg. Silver whistles of somewhat similar construction, ornamented with a mermaid or siren, or with a lion or sea-horse, were frequently worn also as charms in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They are usually hung with little bells, possibly for the purpose of averting the evil eye—the "mal'occhio" or "jettatura" it is termed in Italy. Examples are preserved in the Cluny, Nuremberg, and South Kensington museums.
In Aldegrever's design for a whistle, of the year 1539, the lower part is formed of a case containing small articles for toilet purposes. Such articles, in the shape of toothpicks and ear-picks, often richly gemmed and enamelled, were very commonly worn hanging from a fine gold chain or thread about the neck. Elaborate toothpicks are occasionally seen in pictures, as in the Venetian portrait of a young man in the National Gallery of Ireland. Their owners are sometimes shown affectionately toying with them. Judging by the frequency with which they are met with in inventories, they must have been extremely popular. A few quotations may be given. Thus: Henry VIII (1530). "Two gold toothpicks with H and E—A gold toothpick and an ear-pick, with a chain; and two other toothpicks, one with a ruby and a pearl, and the other with a ruby and a diamond—Two gold whistles."[163] Queen Elizabeth amongst her New Year's gifts received the following:—1573-4: "Six smale tothe-picks of golde. Geven by Mrs. Snowe, one of them lost by her Majestie." 1574-5: "An eare-picke of golde enamuled, garnished with sparcks of rubyes, blue saphirs, and seede perle." 1576-7: "A tothe and eare-picke of golde, being a dolphin enamuled, with a perle pendaunte, 16 small rubyes being but sparcks, and 5 sparcks of dyamonds."[164] Most of the important collections of Cinquecento jewellery contain specimens of these magnificent toothpicks. The form is often that of a mermaid or merman. The body is constructed of a baroque pearl; the tail terminates in a point. Designs for a couple of jewels of this kind were published by Erasmus Hornick of Nuremberg in 1562. In the Cluny Museum (Wasset Bequest) is a silver-gilt pendant, an ear- and toothpick combined, one end being an ear-, the other a toothpick. It is ornamented in the centre with clasped hands and hung with a pearl, and is German work of the sixteenth century.
In addition to the museums already mentioned (namely, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Vienna Museum, the Rothschild and Davillier Bequests in the Louvre, and the coin or gem collections of London, Paris, Berlin, and Munich), numbers of pendants, in immense variety of form, are to be found in all the well-known collections. The Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum contains, perhaps, the largest series; while the Wallace Collection, the Prussian Crown Treasury at Berlin, the Bavarian Crown Treasury at Munich, and the Green Vaults at Dresden, all possess a great number of examples.
Several English pendants of the Renaissance claim attention for their rare beauty and historical importance. Of the pendants of the time of Henry VIII we obtain a tolerably accurate idea from contemporary portraits, and from Holbein's inimitable series of drawings. The earliest existing example, which, so far as can be ascertained, dates from the Holbein period, is known as the Penruddock Jewel. It is believed to have been presented in 1544 by Queen Catherine Parr to Sir George Penruddock of Compton Chamberlayne, and Anne his wife. It is triangular in shape, and set with a large cabochon sapphire surrounded by rubies and diamonds in open-work enamel setting. This remarkable jewel is shown on a portrait of Sir George Penruddock by Lucas de Heere in possession of its owner, Mr. Charles Penruddock, at Compton Chamberlayne, Wiltshire.