Cross Pendant. 17th-18th century A.D. A bronze pectoral cross, plain on the reverse, the obverse with nimbate corpus Christi on the cross, four inscribed suns at the sides, Greek letters IH (?????? = Jesus, above), IC (Jesus) and the Staurogram IX (Jesus Christ, on the sides) and I? (Golgota, under); suspension loop above. See Ahlborn, R.E. & Beaver-Bricken Espinola, V., Russian Copper Icons and Crosses from the Kunz collection: Castings of Faith, Washington, 1991, pp.43ff. for similar images of the Corpus Christi. 19 grams, 82 mm high (3 1/4 in.) Acquired on the UK art market, 2000s. Property of an Essex gentleman. Crosses with plant patterns are called flourishing, the patterns symbolising the Tree of Life, meaning that the cross is a symbol of life. Christ revived everyone for Eternal Life, ‘Death trampled upon death’. The flourishing cross was especially popular in the 17th-18th centuries. [No Reserve]

Fine condition.