- Museum number
- 1978,1002.58
- Description
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Gold cruciform pendant with a central medallion in glass micromosaic depicting the Dove of the Holy Spirit with a gold halo. The four arms are set with white mosaic, each inlaid with a single gold letter in Greek forming NIKA together with a single beaded-wire flower and bordered with beading and twisted wire. There is a circular compartment for hair at the back and an applied trade label.
- Production date
- 1860 (circa)
- Dimensions
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Width: 4.65 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Text from catalogue of Hull Grundy Gift (Gere etal 1984) no. 984:
For Pierret see 957 and 376. Although the nature of Pierret's training is not recorded, there is every indication that he was trained in the Castellani workshop, since a number of technical features are common to both workshops, such as the idea of an inscription in mosaic-work and the use of gold strip inlay (see 952). (Judy Rudoe)
See also C. Gere & J. Rudoe, 'Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Mirror to the World', London, British Museum, 2010, fig. 409 p.421. Caption: ‘ . . . micromosaic jewel[s] by Ernesto Pierret (1824–70): mosaic cross pendant wit the dove of the Holy Spirit.’
Text: Visiting Pierret may not have required so much background knowledge as a visit to the Castellani studio, and may in consequence have been less daunting. . . . Initially Pierret was the only alternative jeweller to find his way into Murray[‘s Handbooks], perhaps because he spoke French and it was easier for foreign clients to do business with him, but he may also have been less intimidating than Augusto, who required so much of his clients. Ernesto Pierret, who was born in 1824, came to Rome from Paris, opening his first shop in 1845. Following his marriage to Virginia Crespi, daughter of a papal lawyer, in 1865 he was able to purchase from the Vescovali family a Renaissance palace at no. 20 Piazza di Spagna, right in the centre of the jewellers’ and artists’ quarter. The building, now named Palazzo Pierret in his honour, still bears his marble plaque above the entrance. (For Pierret’s addresses in Rome, see cat. 957). His wife’s papal connection must have brought him a distinguished clientele but one of very different political orientation from Castellani’s. By 1867 Murray’s text was extended to note that Pierret was ‘only second to Castellani; his imitations and copies of ancient jewellery first-rate’ (Murray, Handbook, 1867, pp. xxv-vi). His medieval-style mosaics and his classical-style jewels stand alone among the works of other Roman jewellers as the closest to Castellani, in some cases virtually indistinguishable. (Charlotte Gere)
For a dove motif on a gold and micromosaic pendant made in Rome after 1872, in the form of an alpha and omega monogram with an amphora below, see: 2013,8005.1. The amphora is inset with micromosaic in the form of an oval with a dove and a cross. The reverse of monogram and loop decorated with fine twisted wirework and beading, the reverse of the amphora with the Chi Rho monogram in gold strip.(Charlotte Gere)
- Location
- On display (G47/dc8/p1/no16)
- Acquisition date
- 1978-1981
- Acquisition notes
- N Bloom & Son, 40 Albemarle Street, London W1. Original invoice for £120 to Anne Hull Grundy dated 3.8.1970, described as 'Antique gold and mosaic pendant cross, signed PIERRET'.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1978,1002.58
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: HG.58 (masterlist number)