APPLICATION OF PIXE TO THE STUDY OF RENAISSANCE STYLE ENAMELED GOLD JEWELRY

This study examines and compares three pieces of Renaissance style gol d and enamelled jewelry owned by the Waiters Art Gallery, Baltimore, M D, USA. These are a 16th century Hat Badge of Adam and Eve, a 19th cen tury Fortitude Pendant and a Diana Pendant presumed to be of the 16th century (The Waiters Art Gallery, Jewelry, Ancient to Modern (Viking, New York, 1979)), Ref. [1]. PIXE spectroscopy was applied to examine t he elemental composition of the gold and of the enamels. Compositional differences, including the use of post-Renaissance colorants, were fo und between the enamels in separate regions of each of the three piece s. The modern colorant, chromium, was, in fact, found in all of the pi eces and uranium was found in only the Diana Pendant. There are some d ifferences in the gold purity of the three objects; there are signific ant differences in the solders used even within one object, the Fortit ude Pendant.