Antique jewelry glossary

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Fly jewelry

A type of pendant made in Egypt in the shape and with the markings of a house-fly, made of gold foil moulded over a composition core and having a suspension ring soldered to the head, or cast in solid gold with a pierced head for stringing onto a necklace.

Such pendants are said to have been made originally as military awards but probably were later a decoration for any courtier, and examples are known to have been worn by women. Some were worn as an amulet. They were made during the New Kingdom, c. 1552 BC -1070 BC, and were possibly connected with the worship of the Canaanite gold Baal-Zebub, whose name was 'Lord of the Flies'.

Also a type of pendant or brooch in the form of a fly, made in England in the Victorian era; some were set with seed pearls and small gemstones.

And also a type of finger ring having on the bezel a relief figure of a fly; examples were made of silver in the 17th century.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson