An extremely rare amber pendant with an embedded portrait cameo of Queen Elizabeth I will be going under the hammer at Sotheby’s on July 1st. It dates to around 1600, the very end of Elizabeth’s reign. What makes the heart-shaped Baltic amber pendant so rare is the microcarved portrait of Elizabeth encased inside it. The level of detail is so exceptional it makes the pendant one of the most sophisticated amber objects in existence today.

It’s not possible to determine the material the portrait was carved out of, but based on other highly-prized amber objects from the period, it was probably made out of white amber or a compound with a high proportion of tin. A concave hollow was cut from behind into the amber heart and the portrait embedded under it. The curved surface served to magnify the image.

The painstaking technique is typical of the work of the finest amber jewelry makers in the town of Königsberg on the Baltic coast in the late 16th century. It is therefore attributed to Hans Klingenberg or Georg Schreiber, goldsmiths and amber carvers at the court of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia, in Königsberg between 1593 and 1648. The marked similarities with the incredibly gorgeous amber chessboard King Charles I brought to the scaffold on the day of his execution makes Georg Schreiber the leading candidate.

Carved after a 1592 engraving by Crispijn de Passe the Elder, the portrait is surrounded by an inscription that reads: ELISABET · D · G · ANG: FRAN: HIB: ET: VIR: REGI: F: D + [ELIZABETH THANKS BE TO GOD QUEEN OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, IRELAND AND VIRGINIA DEFENDER OF THE FAITH]. The same inscription frames Crispijn de Passe’s engraving. The reverse of the pendant has a cameo of a parrot or popinjay

The jewel also holds strong symbolic significance. At the time, encasing a portrait in amber was seen as a way of preserving its memory. The figure of Elizabeth I, enveloped in the golden radiance of the material, thus appears eternally preserved, as if to safeguard the memory of the Elizabethan era. On the reverse side is a depiction of a parrot, a symbol traditionally associated with the Virgin Mary and purity—a clear reference to the image of the “Virgin Queen” that Elizabeth promoted throughout her reign.

Its documented provenance goes back to the 19th century when it was acquired by the Scottish politician John Malcolm, 1st Baron Malcolm of Poltalloch, who amassed one of the most important art collections in Britain. His Old Master drawings, including works by luminaries including Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens and Canaletto, was so important the British Parliament gave the British Museum a grant to acquire it.

The pendant was in the Malcolm family by descent until last year when it was sold to a private collector who is now selling it at auction. The pre-sale estimate is £100,000-150,000 ($132,000-198,000).

A 16th century chair that may have been made for Anne Boleyn when she was lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France is going on public display for the first time at Hever Castle where Anne lived as a child.

The chair was made in the Loire Valley, a center of Late Gothic French Renaissance furniture and art, between 1510 and 1520 when Anne Boleyn was at the French court. It was spotted by Paul Fitzsimmons of Devon-based Marhamchurch Antiques at an auction in New York in 2022. Fitzsimmons is a Tudor and English oak furniture expert who in 2019 identified a gilded wood falcon as a heraldic badge of Anne Boleyn’s removed from Hampton Court Palace after her execution.

The distinctive linenfold carving on the back of the chair is what caught his eye. The walnut backpanel features two nude putti holding a shield with the initials AB tied together by a knotted, tasseled rope known as a cordelière. The putti stand on the tails of dolphins that curve away from each other symmetrically. Their tails are banded together and a Tudor rose rises from the meeting point. The bloom’s placement is significant as the flower is in the center of the seat back where the sitter’s heart would be. Above the shield are “listener” and “talker” figures, motifs found on French ceremonial seats symbolizing the exchange and witnessing of important words.

These bas-reliefs are rife with symbolism. Dolphins are symbols of the French throne (“Dauphin,” the title for heir to the throne, is the French word for dolphin). The binding of the dolphin tails and the Tudor rose suggests a marriage bond between English and French throne. The AB monogram of Anne Boleyn entwined with a cordelière, symbol of spiritual devotion beloved by Queen Claude of France and her redoubtable mother twice Queen of France, Anne of Brittany, convey her position as a link between the two courts, probably specifically for her role as interpreter at the lavish banquet held at the fortress of the Bastille on December 22, 1518, celebrating the Treaty of Eternal Peace between France, England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States sealed by the betrothal of the two-year-old Princess Mary Tudor to the 10-month-old Dauphin, Francis.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg on the chair’s background. Fitzsimmons engaged Philadelphia-based historian Sandra Vasoli to investigate the chair’s symbolism. Read her fascinating, meticulous initial research on her website and follow her social media accounts for future updates.

Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn exhibit runs at Hever Castle through January 2, 2027. The chair will be on display alongside the gilded falcon, another of Anne’s heraldic emblems — a carved wooden leopard’s head — painted portraits and ceremonial objects from her reign as Queen.

A 16th century marble sculpture of a head of woman known as the Head of Medusa that was stolen from a nymphaeum outside Florence more than a century ago and recently recovered by authorities will be restored by Florence’s prestigious conservation institution, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure.

The head was originally part of Fonte della Fata Morgana, a garden structure on the grounds of the Villa Il Riposo in the municipality of Bagno a Ripoli four miles southeast of Florence. It was built by Bernardo Vecchietti, banker and advisor to dukes Cosimo I and Francesco I de’ Medici, in the 1570s as an arcadian retreat for the family’s summer home. Dedicated to Morgan Le Fay (Fata Morgana in Italian), it was designed by Medici court sculptor Giambologna who lived with Vecchietti for several years.

The Fonte was built on ancient spring and included a nymphaeum dug out a hill and a grotto enclosed in a building of pink plaster with white stone doorways and windows. There’s a black and white pebble mosaic floor inside that spells out “Fata Morgana” and an inscription on the wall that invites the reader to drink from the rejuvenating waters of the fountain. The fountain is still there, but the statue of Morgan Le Fay made by Giambologna personally was removed from the fountain by 1730. It was still in the villa until the 1760s when it was sold to an English art dealer in Florence. He sold it to an unknown private collector and it disappeared until 1989, when it emerged at an auction. Last year it was acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Head of Medusa, which was probably another depiction of Morgan Le Fay but her curls were misinterpreted as snakes, was one of the other decorative sculptures in the Fonte. It was illegally removed in the early 20th century and was lost for more than 100 years until it suddenly reappeared in an auction a few months ago. The Cultural Heritage Protection Unit of the Carabinieri returned it to the municipality which owns the Fonte and therefore all its contents.

The town asked the Opificio to care for the Head after years of neglect with the goal of ensuring its long-term stability so it can go on public display. The Opificio’s stone experts will analyze it thoroughly using non-invasive methods to diagnose its condition and conservation needs.

Once the Head of Medusa is restored, it will be exhibited at the Bargello National Museum pending a full restoration of the nymphaeum. Right now the Fonte is not in condition to house the original sculpture, but a copy will be installed in its place.