Elizabethan Pendant Returns to Auction at 25 Times the Price

By Annie Davidson Watson | June 29, 2026

Someone got a very good deal at a Lyon & Turnbull last November.

A circa 1600 amber pendant bearing a reverse-carved portrait of Queen Elizabeth I sold for £5,588 (approximately $7,400) at the Edinburgh auction house. Now it’s headed to Sotheby’s London with an estimate of £100,000 to £150,000 ($132,000–$199,000) in the July 1 Master Sculpture From Four Millennia sale.

The jewel’s provenance traces to John Malcolm, 1st Baron Malcolm of Poltalloch—a Scottish military officer and member of Parliament—whose descendants owned it prior to the Lyon & Turnbull sale. It was exhibited at London’s Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1879.

Created by either Hans Klingenberg or Georg Schreiber, both German amber carvers active in Königsberg during the early 17th century, the yellow amber pendant is inset with a cameo likely made of white amber or a tin-rich compound, featuring a likeness of Elizabeth I based on a portrait she sat for. The amber is said to produce a slight magnifying effect, remarkable given the magnifying glass wasn’t developed until 1691, nearly a century after the jewel was made.

The piece also has gilt highlights, painted foil work, and an 18th-century mount, and is 41 mm (about 1.6 inches) across. A Latin inscription on the pendant translates as “Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France, Ireland and Virginia, Defender of the Faith.” That mention of Virginia is a detail of particular interest, since the name of England’s first American colony—which was named for the Virgin Queen—appears on very few surviving Elizabethan objects.

“Elizabethan jewelry that is intact is extraordinarily rare—this survival is miraculous,” said Chloë Woodmansterne, founder of Aril Jewels, whose designs draw on Elizabethan iconography. “I believe it will take on a life of its own in the auction room. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it soar above £200,000.”

(Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s)

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