The definition within the jewelry industry is “a hanging ornament on a necklace”

We can differentiate two types of pendants:

• Loose pendants: Those that can be removed from the chain or necklace and used as a part of a different pendant or any other jewelry ornament, like an accessory hanging from a velvet or natural silk ribbon. This kind of pendants had a big success among the women of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. They usually wore it tight to the neck.
• Built in pendants: This kind can’t be separated from the necklace or chain, since it actually is a part of it itself to decorate the center of the ornament.

Pendants can have many forms to serve a variety of purposes, as many as the jewelry designer master is able to imagine. The components are also several, although precious stones are the most used gems. However any mineral able to look beautiful in a woman neckline can be turned into a pendant.

Hearts, geometric forms or bouquets are the most common forms you’ll find, although it’s also  frequent those animal-formed pendants. Maybe most modern are those hanging letters. Or, why not, would you wear a remarkable stone set to your pendant with no other purpose but shining on its own?

Images: María Vintage Photography