Amulets & Pendants Jewelry

Silver, warm from the skin, stamped with a god no bigger than a thumbnail. Amulets and pendants here come from India, Ethiopia, Russia, Indonesia, the Philippines and beyond, each made to protect, to signal belief or simply to be carried. Most numerous are Hindu plaque amulets from Rajasthan, cut from coin silver and stamped with Hanuman, Shiva, Durga on her lion and the feet of Vishnu. By most accounts, many honored a family deity or a departed ancestor.

Ethiopian Orthodox crosses and bronze Old Believer crosses from Novgorod and Tver carry the Christian side. From Sumba comes a gold mamuli, a form tied to rank and marriage exchange, and from the Ifugao of the Philippines a pinangpanga with a goat motif. Miao silver, Bontoc charms, Ashanti brass and Ancestral Puebloan pot-shard pendants fill out the case. Wear one on a plain cord, or hang a few in a shadow box by the door. Protection has seldom been this portable.