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Lot Essay
Phyllis Phillips was a professional artist and passionate collector of antique jewellery. Most of her purchases were made on the London market in the 1950s and 1960s. Her lively personality combined with her artist's eye and remarkable visual memory endeared her to the dealers of antique jewellery at the time. Her collection of Medieval and Renaissance jewellery ranged from a rare Burgundian triptych to a 1st century B.C. cameo, and included an important group of 16th century figurative pendants, represented by the present lot.
The salamander was the emblem of King Francis I of France (r.1515-1547). The reptile's mythical ability to walk through fire and extinguish flames dates to writings by Aristotle and Pliny. These characteristics make the salamander an symbol of endurance (R. J. Knecht, Francis I, Cambridge, 1982, p. 7), but probably most famously, it is emblematic of fire and passion. These symbolic meanings would have been well understood at the time.
A salamander pendant in gold and set with rubies was one of the objects recovered from the 1588 wreckage of the Girona from the Spanish Armada and is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue S. Doran, Elizabeth: the exhibition at the National Maritime Museum. London, 2003, cat. 245. Coincidentally, an earring also recovered from this shipwreck was purchased by Mrs. Phillips from an English family in 1972, and was sold, her sale Christie's, London, 13 December 1989, lot 430. Another salamander pendant, described as Spanish, c. 1600, was with S. J. Phillips, Ltd., London and recorded in G. Munn, Triumph of Love: Jewellery 1530-1900. London; 1993, p. 45. Renaissance pendants in the form of salamanders with baroque pearls as their bodies are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (no. M.537-1910) and the Museo degli Argenti, Florence.
The salamander was the emblem of King Francis I of France (r.1515-1547). The reptile's mythical ability to walk through fire and extinguish flames dates to writings by Aristotle and Pliny. These characteristics make the salamander an symbol of endurance (R. J. Knecht, Francis I, Cambridge, 1982, p. 7), but probably most famously, it is emblematic of fire and passion. These symbolic meanings would have been well understood at the time.
A salamander pendant in gold and set with rubies was one of the objects recovered from the 1588 wreckage of the Girona from the Spanish Armada and is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue S. Doran, Elizabeth: the exhibition at the National Maritime Museum. London, 2003, cat. 245. Coincidentally, an earring also recovered from this shipwreck was purchased by Mrs. Phillips from an English family in 1972, and was sold, her sale Christie's, London, 13 December 1989, lot 430. Another salamander pendant, described as Spanish, c. 1600, was with S. J. Phillips, Ltd., London and recorded in G. Munn, Triumph of Love: Jewellery 1530-1900. London; 1993, p. 45. Renaissance pendants in the form of salamanders with baroque pearls as their bodies are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (no. M.537-1910) and the Museo degli Argenti, Florence.