Gold and enamel cross pendant with table cut emeralds

A gold and enamel cross pendant set with table cut emeralds.

Spanish, early 17th century.

Measures 3.6 x 2.1cm (excluding loose pendant bail).

The front of of the pendant is set with six table cut emeralds, at it’s base hangs a small seed pearl drop. The reverse is decorated in red, white and green enamels in a variation of the egg and dart pattern. The elegant little pendant was made in the final decades of the Renaissance period, the emeralds would have been collected from the Spanish territories in South America.