Measuring just 3.2 cm in height and 2.8 cm in width, this tiny pendant is more mysterious than an initial study would suggest.

Reverse-painted glass panels are decorated with religious images and set into a silver-gilt mount shaped like a book, which can be “opened” like a locket to reveal an empty inner container.

On the top and bottom are matching trefoil loops, and the “book” is held shut by a clasp on one side. All of this we can readily observe. But then the questions start building: when and where was the pendant made? What is depicted in each of the glass panels? And what would have been kept inside this unusual object?

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