Necklace Composed of Spondylus Shell and Antique Gold Beads

Peach and coral tablets, spaced with faceted gold, like a sunset in single file.

This necklace is composed of spondylus shell and antique gold beads, from Ecuador and of mixed age. It is 21 karat gold and spondylus shell, and the catalogue describes the shell beads as pre-Columbian, re-strung with the gold. Spondylus was generally held sacred among ancient Andean peoples, often valued above gold and traded far from the warm coastal waters where it grows. Here flat, round-ended tablets in orange, peach and pink hang in a graduated fringe, divided by small gold beads. Larger faceted gold beads continue around the back. It is 18 inches long.

Gold plays the supporting role here, which it rarely agrees to do.