Banded agate has been carved in layered relief since antiquity; its natural stripes allowed artists to work light against dark to create dynamic cameos. In the Victorian period it reappeared as a fashionable decorative stone, cut into somber striped beads and cabochons. This pendant takes the material into the late nineteenth century’s world of portable gadgets: a whistle carved from a single block of agate. And it works!
MATERIALS: agate, base metal fittings, new sterling silver chain
AGE: c. 1880
CONDITION: Very good
SIZE: 1 1/2" x 5/8", 18" chain