Featured Pietra Dura Pendant from Marienbad

a good method for certain things it seems. here I'd rather say leave it alone.

 

Shhh! They'll never know if you don't tell.

 

I'll just leave it alone, I think

 

Well, it looks like I've been outvoted. Perhaps the backside can be polished to see what the un-oxidized metal looks like? Looks pretty bad as is. Might be an improvement?

 

Back definitely needs to be cleaned. As you noted, the name is gradually coming away on its own. Looks as though if a time comes that someone wants it completely gone, that will easily be accomplished. The decision does not have to be made now.

 

I really like this one Barn Owl.

Would that back compartment be for hair? It reminds me a bit of hair jewelry, but maybe with the town name on the front it isn't that. Just curious.

 

I'm glad you like it, Lucille! It's one of my favorite finds this year.

It seems too deep to just be for a photograph, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was for hair or another small keepsake. I wonder if someone might put a pressed flower, or another small memento they took from the town, in there.

 

Think you could put in any memento that fit. Have seen compartments deep enough to hold something larger holding only a photo, with many layers of paper cut to size holding it in place.

 

Have seen people pair disparate things. I have a cameo of the Emperor Nero set in a locket that has a sepia photo of a baby inside.

 

Someone hated their child.

 

They hated the pendant. There was a limit to how much my jeweller could do to undo what they had some jeweller do to change it into a buckle!

 

Oh dear, so they mutilated a pendant and also locked their child in, behind a buckle contraption? Please do not show us, it would all be too much for sensitive joolie eyes.

 

As I read the signs, they had the hook side of a clasp/buckle attached to the gold filled back panel of the locket, then jeweller cut through the bottom most part of the heavy gold bail, where it is thinnest. The cut ends are slightly out of alignment now, although this is hidden when the piece is worn. Looks to me like they attempted to twist it open, the way you do with a jump ring & found this harder to do than they reckoned. The bail is not designed to swing down out of sight. It would seem the project would have had to be abandoned. My jeweller took the offending piece off the back, leaving a less than desirable patch on the back. Anyone who would do that to the locket is capable of locking a baby inside.

 

I blame the parents.