Description
A gold cross with open back, beveled edges and three-sided ends create the framework. The five facetted topaz stones in honey color are inset, the central one is square and those in the cross arms are cut to fit the form. The settings have ornamental, claw-like designs. On top is a pendant loop with two loop rings. The pendant is in good, wearable condition.
Literature:
In the early nineteenth century, decorative cross pendants with colorful gemstones became increasingly fashionable. In jewelry diamonds were often replaced by gemstones such as amethysts, aquamarines, chrysoprase, citrines, garnets, peridots, and like here topazes which exist in varying color shades. After the discovery of Imperial topaz in 1735 in Minas Gerais, Brazil, the gemstone became highly sought after and was costly to acquire. For the sources and history of topazes, see: Rui Galopim de Carvalho, Gempedia, Asian Institute of Gemmological Sciences, Bangkok 2024, pp. 656-657.
In the 1820s and 1830s gemstones became the focal point in jewelry designs and were framed by fine gold settings to highlight their beauty, like here in this cross pendant, and often their colors would match the dress. It was in vogue to wear such crosses on a velvet band tied at the back of the neck, or suspended from a gold chain, rarely with matching gem-set necklace, as in a peridot parure of 1816 in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (cf. Clare Phillips, Jewels & Jewellery, London 2019, pp. 76-77). For an almost identical cross (c. 1820) attached to a rivière necklace, see: Redington Dawes and Collings, Georgian Jewellery 1714-1830, Woodbridge, 2007, p. 75, and for the history of Imperial topaz, p. 111, and the style of the time.