A RARE RELIQUARY PENDANT FOR KING JAMES II

Scottish Silver & Applied Arts | 568

Auction: 14 August 2019 at 11:00 BST

£2,000

Description

the silver heart-shaped pendant with pull-off cover, the obverse engraved with initial IR with crown above and heart below, within circular cartouche, the border with oak leaf border, the reverse engraved 'IHS' within oak leaf border, the interior with fragment of what is believed to be a section of King James' pericardium

Dimensions

30mm including bale x 33mm

Footnote

Note: Reliquary pendants are more regularly for King Charles I after his beheading in 1649 and are seen in similar form with much the same motifs and iconography. Some rarer examples do feature engraved portraits of King Charles of memento mori motif, such as skulls.
While the relic inside the pendant is now almost perished it is considered that due to iconography on the obverse showing the heart under the initials for King James that this could be what it held. While it would not have been flesh of the actual heart itself it would more likely have been a section of pericardium - the fibrous membrane which encloses the heart. This would not be unusual as another reliquary containing a portion of James' pericardium is known at Chiddingstone Castle, Kent.