Antique jewelry glossary

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Saint-Esprit cross

See our: crosses.

Saint-Esprit cross (French). An article of French peasant jewelry, made in Flanders and other regions, being a gold or silver pendant in the form of the Holy Dove, sometimes holding in its beak an olive branch, a spring of forget-me-nots or a bunch of grapes.

The piece was usually set with crystal or coloured paste, and was worn suspended from an ornament in the form of a bow-knot with a rosette-shapes slide on the ribbon. Some pendants of expensive jewelry in the form of a dove, set with gemstones and having a suspended pearl, are sometimes referred to by the same name.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson