Lot consisting of two heart-shaped amulets, one made of Schreckstein pink stone and the other of marine ivory, in silver mounts.
Southern Germany, 17th/18th century for the former and 18th/19th century for the latter
H. 3.1 cm and 2.3 cm - Gross weights: 6.8 g and 2.6 g (wear to one setting)
The Victoria and Albert Museum holds a very similar heart-shaped pink stone amulet (inv. M.27-1917). In southern Germany, this type of natural curiosity, unusual in the nature of the stone (probably a variety of serpentine) and its shape, was thought to have supernatural protective properties against the evil eye, hence the name Schreckstein, literally "stone of terror".
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