A petite late Victorian pendant with a nautical flair featuring a reverse-carved crystal swallow in flight within a gold rope frame. Reverse carved crystal is made by carving images into the base of rock crystal cabochons and then (carefully) hand painting them. The subtle distortion created by the crystal makes the images beneath appear three dimensional. Normally, we would call this an Essex crystal, however, the back side of the pendant is stamped 10k which is the American gold standard so chances are it was made in the US and not the UK (and therefore is not technically an Essex crystal).