Amber Pendant with Elizabeth I Portrait to Fetch Up to £150,000 at Sotheby's

A rediscovered amber pendant featuring a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I will be auctioned at Sotheby's London on July 1 as part of its "Master Sculpture from Four Millennia" sale. The pendant, estimated at £100,000 to £150,000 ($132,599 to $198,898), is the second-highest valued lot, surpassed only by a nautilus shell by Cornelis Bellekin. The anonymous consignor purchased the piece for just £5,588 at auction in Edinburgh last November, when it was not identified as 16th-century. Sotheby's research and scientific analysis confirmed its Renaissance origin. The pendant is attributed to German amber worker Hans Klingenberg or his associate Georg Schreiber, both based in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). The portrait is based on a 1592 engraving by Crispijn de Passe the Elder, derived from a drawing by Isaac Oliver. The carving is sealed within yellow amber, and XRF analysis ruled out ivory or bone, suggesting white amber. The verso features a parrot, a Renaissance symbol for the Virgin Mary. The piece remained in the family of 19th-century Scottish politician John Malcolm for nearly two centuries. Amber working flourished after 1525 when Albrecht of Hohenzollern converted to Lutheranism, ending the Teutonic Order's control.