Female bust in low relief and in profile to the right. Her head is made of carnelian and her long curly hair is chased gold. Her tunic of amethyst is fastened with a brooch over her right shoulder. She wears a gold, feathered turban set with a ruby, two garnets and an emerald. The figure is set against a punched gold background with a corded gold wire rim. It is surmounted by a suspension loop in the shape of a fleur-de-lis. The faceted emerald with a late cut is probably a replacement. The reverse is decorated with a cartouche of strapwork in translucent dark blue, red and green enamel with large areas of loss. The amethyst is cracked. This pendant belongs to a group of commessi attributed to a French workshop at the court of Henry II. Commesso in this sense signifies a pendant or badge in which a cameo or fragment of a cameo is combined with gold to form a head, figure or scene. In this case a sixteenth century Italian cameo fragment has probably been used, possibly the profile from a representation of the Lydian queen, Omphale, although the turban recalls traditional representations of Dido. It is also suggested that the enamel strapwork on the reverse is English and this may explain its unusual heavy design and choice of colours.

The pendant is identifiable with the ‘bust with a cap set wth jewells one out the shoulders amethest the plate gold’ recorded in the seventh drawer of a cabinet at Kensington Palace in a list of curiosities drawn up before 1755 and almost certainly from the collection of Queen Caroline, consort of George II.

Text adapted from Ancient and Modern Gems and Jewels in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London, 2008 and catalogue entry from Gold, London, 2014.