Sold for Just £5,588, This Amber Pendant Turned Out to Be a Rare Tudor-Era Portrait of Elizabeth I. Now, It's Going on Auction for £100,000

Meilan Solly | Senior Associate Digital Editor, History

Add as preferred source. This amber pendant is expected to fetch 100,000 to 150,000 at auction. Sotheby's Last November, an Edinburgh auction house sold a petite portrait of Elizabeth I for a relatively modest sum: £5,588, or roughly $7,350. The listing for the “Elizabethan-style amber and enamel pendant” suggested that the accessory was crafted in the late 19th century, nearly 300 years after the Tudor queen’s death in 1603.

On July 1, the pendant is slated to go under the hammer once again. This time around, it carries an estimate of £100,000 to £150,000—up to 27 times more than its sale price just seven months ago. As Christopher Mason, Sotheby’s European head of sculpture and works of art, tells Artnet’s Vittoria Benzine, “The value increase is because, through significant research and scientific analysis, we established that the object was a rare, rediscovered Renaissance jewel” created toward the end of Elizabeth’s reign.