A small object has surfaced in London that sits somewhere between jewellery and historical record, though it refuses to settle neatly into either category. A pendant, no larger than something that could rest on a fingertip, carries within it a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I carved into amber. It is being linked to the final years of her reign, around 1600, a period already thick with imagery, ceremony and carefully managed appearances. What makes it unusual is not only its survival but the way it compresses court portraiture into something almost private. Objects like this rarely leave much trace in written sources, so when they do appear, they tend to unsettle assumptions about what travelled through European courts and how such objects were actually used.
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