Unusual Renaissance Revival Yellow Gold Gem-Set Pendant. Designed as an American Indian with carved opal head, wearing a feather headdress, the gold torso a lidded compartment, flanked by a quiver of arrows and a tomahawk, heightened in enamels and set with diamonds and colored stones suspending pearl drops, engraved on the reverse with a ship within American Indian heads in profile beneath a plume of enameled feathers, 22k+. 55.9 g. total weight H: 5 in., W: 1.75 in., D: 0.75 in. Possibly the work of the German goldsmith Reinhold Vasters (1827-1909), who was expert and prolific at copying period Renaissance jewels and objects in a historical style. He worked for the art historian Franz Bock, and goldsmiths August Witte and Martin Vogeno. He also worked for the Viennese art dealer Frederic Spitzer, who helped Vasters sell his forgeries. He was highly skilled at distressing and aging surfaces, and adding later additions and spurious workmen's marks.

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5 x 1.75 x 0.75 in