The Victorians loved their symbolism, which is very evident in jewelry of the era. In 1871, in the old and very long lyric poem, The Horse Shoe: The True Legend of St Dunstan and the Devil by Edward G. Flight, we get a glimpse of where one of the stories about horseshoe symbolism may have originated.
St. Dunstan was a very quiet and humble hermit who worked at his anvil and played the harp. One night, there was the sound of howling outside Dunstan's hut. The Devil had come by. Always wanting to play some mischief, the Devil began howling discordantly out-of-tune with the lovely harp music.
In one version of the story, the Devil sees Dunstan shoe a lame horse and make him well. Then, Dunstan notices that the Devil is limping on one of his cloven hooves. He offers to make a shoe to help the Devil, too. The Devil envisions a satin slipper but, instead, Dunstan nails a red hot horseshoe very tightly onto the split hoof. The Devil screamed and begged him to take it off. But, Dunstan was in no hurry to do that. Dunstan's solution was to make the Devil promise that he would always respect the symbol of the horseshoe and never enter a building that is protected by the sign of a shoe. Since then, the horseshoe has been viewed as a way to ward of evil and bring in good luck.
This c. 1900 diamond and ruby yellow gold horseshoe pendant has been converted from a stickpin, retaining all its hallmarks on the rosy gold hanging bail that was fashioned from the pin. It measures approximately 17mm by 19.3mm, weighs 3.7g. It was crafted in Vienna and is hallmarked with Austro Hungarian hallmark 580 for 14k. In antique condition with wear commensurate with age and use. You will receive the pictured pendant.
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