The Mainz gold jewellery, formerly better known as the so-called “Gisela jewellery” or “Jewelry of the Empress Agnes“ has been considered one of the main works of medieval European goldsmithing for decades. The exciting stories surrounding the individual finds, the extremely wealthy collector Baron Maximilian von Heyl or even the later acquisition of the treasure by Kaiser Wilhelm II and the subsequent handover of the Heyl collection to what later became the Bode Museum in Berlin are still fascinating today.
In addition to the world famous eagle fibula, the big gold hump fibula and the rare necklace, another object stands out above all in terms of the enormous quality of the goldsmith's work: a gold one Crescent Earring, which was discovered in 1904 during demolition work in the area of the former Mainz Stadionerhof barracks at a depth of four meters together with a Byzantine gold coin. The latest investigations even suggest the existence of a former imperial palace in the middle of the city of Mainz.
It was that outstanding gold earring that served as our model for a replica of this remarkable piece of medieval jewelery in the form of a gold-plated silver necklace.
As always, it was particularly important to us to achieve the greatest possible level of detail when reproducing this historical piece of jewelry. Since all or at least some of the gemstones on the original earring from the "Gisela jewelry" are probably later additions, we also took the liberty of reinterpreting the gemstone jewelry on the medieval earring for our pendant version: two blood-red rubies and a precious emerald in the center of the pendant. We also added the lower pearl ring, which was missing on the original, using real seed pearls.
All details of the pendant were painstakingly made individually by hand over a period of four weeks: the foundation made of silver sheet with authentic filigree decoration on the back of the pendant, the decorative wave bands around the earring, the settings of the pearls with cord wire borders as well as the three gemstone settings with additional eyelet claws, the many tiny "beehives" made of corded wire - even every single bead for the two finely granulated humps on the left and right of our pendant.
From our – completely immodest 😉 – point of view, this is how a unique goldsmith replica was created, which is in no way inferior to the medieval charm and enchanting charisma of the original earring from the “Gisela jewelry”.
We would be happy to make the pendant for you as a pair of earrings, with modified gemstone jewelry or entirely out of gold - please Ask us just afterwards….
