Pendant, Europe, 17th century. Bezoar stone; silver mounts, 1,7 cm x 3,8 cm x 6,4 cm Weight: 37 g. Price on request © PAB / Aguiar-Branco Antiques. Courtesy Asian Art Society 

​A small bezoar stone with silver mounts and a loop for suspension. Bezoar stones (from the Arabic word b zahr, stemming from the Persian pdzahr, “antidote”), were considered to be a potent remedy against all kinds of poisons, plague, worms, melancholy, madness, and malignant fevers, but are, in fact, concretions found in the gastrointestinal system of animals, and are obtained from the bezoar or wild goats (Capra aegagrus), the ancestors of domestic goats.¹ Highly sought after by Renaissance princes, who paid astronomical prices for large, perfect specimens, their popularity was heightened by intercontinental trade between Europe and the East and West Indies during the Age of Discovery, and were ubiquitous in the private apothecaries of the wealthy in the early modern period. While the most coveted bezoars originated in Iranian goats, which were traded in important sea ports such as Portuguese-ruled Hormuz, many other creatures across the globe, from Malacca to the New World, produce such concretions, such as cows, sheep, monkeys and even some apes.

​Bezoars were avidly collected and also presented as gifts. In July 1553 Catarina of Austria (1507-1578), queen of Portugal sent a bezoar with gold mounts to her beloved brother the emperor Carlos V (r. 1519-1556) who was then in Brussels. At this early date it was certainly difficult for the emperor to procure fine bezoars, which were more within the reach of his sister Catarina, whose rule extended from Brazil to Japan. One of the earliest depictions of such mounted bezoars which, like the present example, might have been suspended in liquids as an antidote to poison, or simply worn next to the skin of its wearer, is found in the illustrated inventory of the jewellery (fol. 13v.) belonging to Anna of Austria (1528-1590), the so-called Kleinodienbuch (ca. 1552-1555) or "jewel book" by the court painter Hans Mielich (1516-1573).2

The present example, featuring twisted silver wire bordering a chisel-cut band with fleur-de-lis, shows signs of having been heavily scraped with metal files. The resulting powder would be mixed with a liquid medium to make a medicinal tonic. Our bezoar features an ancient, probably nineteenth-century inventory number "1486" inscribed in white paint.

1 See Marnie P. Stark, “Mounted Bezoar Stones, Seychelles Nuts, and Rhinoceros Horns: Decorative Objects as Antidotes in Early Modern Europe”, Studies in the Decorative Arts, 11.1, 2003-2004, pp. 69-94.

2 See Erna von Watzdorf, “Mielich und die bayerischen Goldschmiedewerke der Renaissance”, Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 12.1-2, 1937, pp. 65-84.

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