Mastery of Design: The Saragosa Cathedral Jewel, 1740

Pendant
Spain, 1740
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Today’s shiny thing is a gold pendant set with rose-cut diamonds and a magnificent relief of the Adoration of the Magi in enamelled gold under glass. The reverse of the pendant is engraved with a monogram within a heart. It was made by an unknown Spanish jeweler in 1740.


This is one of many jewels which were formerly in the Treasury of the Cathedral of the Virgin of the Pillar, Saragossa. The group was purchased by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1870, when the Cathedral authorities sold off many of their treasures in order to complete a building program.