Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu

A 17th/18th century Italian rock crystal cross reliquary, the facetted cruciform rock crystal displaying a fragment of the ‘True Cross of Christ’, within gilt metal filigree detail mount, with suspensory loop above, the filigree border threaded with a fine cord suspending below the original red wax seal stamped with the coat of arms of a catholic Bishop or Bishopric, contained in original lozenge-shaped tooled brown leather case, red silk lined, the underside applied with marbled paper, length of cross (excluding suspensory loop and seal) 4.4cm, box length 6.3cm. £800-1000

By Christian tradition, the True Cross is the name for the physical remnants believed to be from the cross upon which Christ was crucified. According to Church history, the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, travelled to the Holy Land in 326-328, where she discovered the hiding place of the three crosses believed to have been used at the crucifixion of Christ and the two thieves, St Dismas and Gestas, crucified either side of him. A miracle was said to have revealed which of the three crosses was the True Cross. Fragments of the cross were broken up and widely distributed. Most of the very small relics of the True Cross found in Europe came from Constantinople after the city was captured and sacked in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade.