Necklace, gold, enamelled in white, black and blue and set with pearls. Transylvania, about 1595.

Necklace, gold, enamelled in white, black and blue and set with pearls. The applied plaques on each link with the maker's mark 'RV'. The clasp a later addition.

Bought in 1868 from Otto Mündler, a well-known dealer in paintings and art historian, for £240, including a pendant (696B-1868). The provenance given was that they came from the Habsburg castle of Ambras, near Innsbruck, Austria. However Dr Elisabeth Schmuttermeier has kindly provided the information that the necklet was among the jewels which the Archduchess Maria Christina took with her to the convent at Hall near Innsbruck in 1607.

When she and her sister Eleonore joined the convent, they brought with them all their dress jewels. The convent was closed in 1773 and the jewels were dispersed to different places. Two hundred and thirteen of the jewels which had been mounted on a gold chalice and two crowns for ciboria (vessels to hold bread for holy communion) were sold to a church in Innsbruck from which they were bought in 1881 by the Österreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna. The necklace and the pendant in the V&A are reported by Dr Schmuttermeier to have been sold from the convent in 1773 to another buyer.

This necklace was part of the wedding present given to the Archduchess Maria Christierna of Austria (1574-1621) by Sigismund Bathory on their marriage in 1595. It was made in Klausenburg in Transylvania (Cluj-Napoca in modern Romania). It was among the jewels which Maria Christierna brought with her when she entered the convent at Hall in 1607.

Each link of this necklace is marked with the maker's monogram RV on the back. Most unusually for the period, goldsmiths in Klausenburg marked their jewels with their initials. Other examples are among the Hall jewels in the Österreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, and in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection.

696-1868