Mastery of Design: Pendant Jewel with Apollo and Daphne

Pendant Jewel with Apollo and Daphne
Mid-Sixteenth Century with Eighteenth
Century Additions
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II

Gold, émail en ronde bosse (enamel work), sard (carnelian), orange and white sardonyx, black and white onyx, table-cut diamonds, table-cut and cushion-cut rubies, cushion-cut Colombian emeralds, turquoise, saltwater pearl are combined in this magnificent pendant jewel.


The jewel—in its present condition—was first recorded in the Royal Collection in 1830, though it predates that by a century or two. Three pendants are suspended from a central jewel set in gold scrollwork. The pendant on the left is a sardonyx cameo of a female bust in three-quarter profile which is framed by fourteen emeralds set in a gold mount with two small pearls above. The central hanging pendant is a turquoise cameo representing a draped female bust, in profile,, in a gold mount, also with large pearl above. And, to the right, hangs an onyx cameo with the head of Bacchus en face, framed by fourteen rubies in a gold mount with two small pearls above.

The original jewel, created circa 1650, from which the three pendants hang, seems to have included a cameo with a painted portrait where the largest sard cameo is set today. Alterations were made to the piece, most likely at the request of King George IV who had very definite ideas about the way things should look.

As it is today, the central frame is suspended by two chains from the ruby-set clasp. It is set with an enamel figure of reclining Cupid, the figures of Cupid and Apollo, a dragon and a harpy. The reverse features full-length figures of Apollo and Daphne. The overall theme here is that of unrequited love. That’s a theme that never goes out of style, even when the piece was altered for changing tastes.