Gold, seed pearl and enamel pendant, circa 1700 - Photo Sotheby's

Designed as a devotional pendant of The Madonna of the Pillar, against a background of foliate design, highlighted with seed pearls, translucent and opaque enamel, losses to enamel. Estimation: 4,000 - 6,000 GBP. Lot. Vendu 20,000 GBP

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: Legend has it that in circa 40 AD the Virgin miraculously appeared on the banks of the river Ebro near Saragossa to assist the Evangelist St. James the Greater. Before she returned to Palestine she gave instructions for a church to be built around the marble pillar on which she stood. The cult of the Virgin of the Pillar grew in strength in the middle ageswith such devotional jewels made for the pilgrims to the Cathedral in Saragossa. The present example would appear to date to the turn of the 17th century and was probably made in Saragossa for the pilgrims to the shrineRelated 

Literature: Princely Magnificence, Court Jewels of the Renaissance 1500-1630, exh.cat Victoria and Albert Museum 1980-1981, nos.95, 104-107

Sotheby's. The Jewellery Collection of the Late Michael Wellby: An Eclectic Eye - Jewels Spanning Four Centuries. London | 11 déc. 2012 www.sothebys.com