Mastery of Design: The Perched Parrot Pendant, 1600-50

Pendant of Gold, Rock Crystal, and Enamel
Spain, 1600-1650
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This pendant is inspired by the English tradition of  jewelry depicting “The Pelican in her Piety” wherein a jeweled pelican (with a ruby wound) is shown to have ripped open her own breast in order to feed her children.  This, however, is a variation on the theme without the overtones of martyrdom.

Here, we see an enameled gold pendant in the form of a parrot on a perch.  It is set with a table-cut foiled crystal and hung with pearls.  Made in Spain by an unknown jeweler, it dates between 1600 and 1650. 

This jewel is one of a group from the treasury of the Cathedral of the Virgin of the Pillar, Zaragoza.  The group of jewels was purchased by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1870, when the Cathedral authorities sold off their many treasures in order to complete a construction project.