Pendant - Hands clasping Heart (Europe) ca. 1580-1600 Diamonds, pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Dragon (Italy) ca. 1550-1600 Pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Cock (Germany) ca. 1600 Baroque pearl, rubies, other jewels set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
The Pearl
That swimmers of the rock conspired to weave
down the green shaken depth a flight
of turning loins and shoulders, and yet leave
forever captured in a shell of night
the globe of shining in the sand, shall mean
as idols mean in sleep, the truth
we carry sealed and quiet down the green
descent into a memory of youth.
This is the grammar of a dream, to mark
how the brown swimmers came and are,
pass and recoil from where the forgotten dark
turns pale again upon a buried star.
– Richmond Lattimore (1950)
Pendant - Dolphin (Germany) ca. 1600 Topazes, other jewels set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Flying Cupid (Germany) ca. 1600 Pearls, rubies, other jewels set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Lute player mounted on deer (Germany) ca. 1600 Pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Minerva (Italy) ca. 1550-1600 Baroque pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Cupid in niche (Netherlands) ca. 1550-60 Pearls, other jewels set in enameled-gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Lamb (Europe) ca. 1580 Pearl (half) set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Man and woman in horse-drawn sleigh (Europe) ca. 1600 Diamonds, other jewels set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
from Jewel Thief Movie
I had dozens of uses, but I was mostly
flat beautiful. Visitors just gasped
in the matte-black room where I freely
fluoresced. They saw me laid on a dictionary
to demonstrate my transparency,
which was complete; they could read the word
everything through me.
My name meant blood, meant seawater,
meant lemon. The eye in my agate
never blinked. I was believed to be formed
of frozen moonlight. I was cut so that a star
shone back. The purest and wind-clearest
hunk of me they carved into a horse.
– Patricia Lockwood (2017)
Pendant - Dragon (Spain) ca. 1550-1600 Baroque pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Cannon (Germany) ca. 1580-1600 Pearls, rubies, diamonds set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Death with Scythe (Europe) ca. 1600 enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Pendant - Sphinx (Italy) ca. 1600 Baroque pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Poems from the archives of Poetry (Chicago)