GEORGIAN TOPAZ CROSS PENDANT
Lot 104

GEORGIAN TOPAZ CROSS PENDANT

Closed13 June 2018

Price Realised

GBP 7,500

More Information

How to sell

GEORGIAN TOPAZ CROSS PENDANT
Shaped rectangular and square-cut topaz, gold, circa 1820, 6.2 cm, original fitted brown case

Specialist note

Cf. G. Redington Dawes and O. Collings, Georgian Jewellery 1714-1830, Antique Collectors’ Club, 2007, p.150-151
Cf. S. Bury Jewellery 1789-1910, The International Era, Volume 1 1789-1861 Antique Collectors’ Club, 1991, p.164

Throughout the Georgian period the cross pendant remained the most popular motif with which women adorned their necks, suspending them variously from gold chains, velvet ribbons or rivière necklaces. It is recorded that in 1801 Jane Austen’s brother Charles purchased for her and her sister Cassandra ‘gold chains & Topaze Crosses’. These gifts were clearly a delight to the sisters, Jane writing to Cassandra that ‘We shall be unbearably fine.’