A RENAISSANCE REVIVAL ENAMEL AND GEM-SET PENDANT

The design of this late 19th century Renaissance revival pendant has been identified as the work of K. Hammer, a teacher at the vocational school of the Dukedom of Baden in Karlsruhe. Little is known about Hammer's work but it is likely that the pendant was commissioned by an aristocratic patron in the 1880s.
In Germany the Renaissance manner was treated with a high degree of exactitude and became a symbol of an emergent nation after the unification of the country in 1865.
Renaissance Jewellery was studied with great thoroughness and involved the research of surviving old pieces, portraits and other records. German publications on the subject were widely consulted throughout Europe where generally a more relaxed attitude prevailed.
Reinhold Vasters of Aachen took the German academic approach to its ultimate conclusion and it is a tribute to his skill that many of his productions have been mistakenly accepted as genuine Renaissance jewels throughout much of the 20th century.

Cf. Brigitte Marquardt, Schmuck Realismus und Historismus 1850-1895, Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1998, cat. no. 274, p. 252

Cf. Pariser Weltausstellung in Wort und Bild, 1900, p. 334