NAVIGATION

A Large Heart Shaped Rock Crystal Silver Mounted Reliquary
Silver, Rock-Crystal, Polychrome 
Spain 
17th Century 

SIZE: 9cm high, 7.5cm wide, 1.5cm deep - 3½ ins high, 3 ins wide, ⅔ ins deep 

Housed behind a large ‘chunk’ of Rock Crystal, the Madonna is shown praying with her hands firmly clasped, a rosary bead necklace falling down her chest and a ‘starry’ silver ‘halo’ framing her whistful face with a downward gaze. To the reverse of the silver mount we find engraved the initials ‘I H S’ above a ‘Bleeding Heart’ with three arrows.  
     Most certainly from a private devotional chapel, or a traveling ‘amulet’ to be hung wherever the devout owner came to rest.