Gold 001 SOLD

Description

Unique Jewelry: Chieftain’s Regalia

This four piece unique jewelry set of hammered and repoussé sheet gold symbols of rank and power for the gold-smithing of pre Columbian societies that lived in present-day Costa Rica. Included are a pair of cuffs, lunula breast plate and headband likely representing a chieftain’s regalia.

These unique jewelry works were created by hammering sheets of gold and/or tumbaga (gold/copper alloy) and employing a metal-working technique called repoussé whereby patterns are created by “pushing” into these thin sheets, by means of stamps and molds,  the elements in relief that are desired.

Such symbols of inherited rank and position were the very objects that inspired the first European explorers, when they saw these richly gold-bedecked inhabitants of the land that later became Costa Rica, to name this Central American territory: Costa Rica (rich coast).

Note: Sold as a set

• Headband: approx. 8 ½” (21.5 cm) diameter (adjustable)
• Cuffs:  6” x 4” (15.25 x 10cm) adjustable
• Breastplate: 11” (28cm) at widest
• 24K gold plating over bronze