Updated Classics: Symbolic Gold Pendants
Photo credit: @foundrae
Wear your heart around your neck
I have a yellow gold heart locket that was my mom’s. I wear it on a long chain, and inside are tiny pictures of two dogs: Stryder and Annabelle. Stryder was my parent’s pug who was best friends with my first French Bulldog, Annabelle. I wear this necklace traveling, and I always said if I ended up on a deserted island I’d have them to make me smile. Both of these dogs have since passed, but I can’t bring myself to update the pictures. They still make me smile. My heart locket symbolizes love and joy and can be worn with anything—it’s a bona fide classic. Here are seven symbolic gold pendants that mean more than meets the eye.
Love Token
This oversized sun-inspired heart medallion is enriched with meaning. It celebrates the seven classic types of love: Eros (romantic love), Philia (friendship), Agape (universal love), Storge (love between parent and child), Ludus (playful love), Pragma (love founded on duty & reason), and Philautia (self-love). A perfect example of NY-based Foundrae’s modern heirlooms.
18k yellow gold and diamond personalized “Oversized Heart Love Token” medallion, $3,195 at Foundrae
All The Feels
For EF Collection designer Emily Faith Goldstein, less is more. She began selling her 14k gold handset pieces in her local hair salon. Fast forward to celebrities like Margot Robbie and Jessica Alba wearing her designs on the red carpet. This multi-stone medallion necklace has it all.
14k gold, white diamond, blue sapphire, ruby, pink sapphire, orange sapphire, yellow sapphire, tsavorite, light blue sapphire “All The Feels” necklace, $2,995 at EF Collection
Sunbeam
Sun worshipers unite. LA’s Zoe Chicco has a way with everyday fine jewelry that become favorites you never want to take off. This sunbeam necklace can be interpreted many ways, radiating energy inward, outward, everywhere.
Zoe Chicco sunbeam medallion necklace with bezel diamond, $1,295
P6 Diamond
Handmade in New York, CVC Stones’ creations are rooted in simplicity in the natural world. Financier turned jewelry designer Charles de Viel Castel has a “passion for uniting natural materials with smooth, tactile surfaces,” and this necklace is a treasure.
CVC Stones 18k gold and “P6” diamond necklace, $9,500 at Matches Fashion
Helios
A celebration of Helios, the Greek god of the sun who rode his chariot of fire through the sky, this pendant beckons summer style. Designer Konstantina Pantelous of Hermina Athens creates designs inspired by classical antiquity, Greek mythology, and island life. Each piece is crafted by silversmiths in Athens and plated in gold.
Hermina Athens gold-plated “Helios” pendant, $155 at Liberty London
Petrvs Scarab
From David Yurman’s Petrvs Collection inspired by ancient artifacts, this necklace is an ode to Ancient Egyptian culture where scarab beetles were sacred, representing the cycle of life and death. Worn as a form of protection then, this necklace brings the scarab into layering necklace territory now.
David Yurman 18k yellow gold “Petrvs Small Scarab” pendant, $950 at Schiffman’s Jewelers
The Author’s Amphora
Great works of poetry inspire London-based Alighieri jewelry. This pendant is part of their Love in the Wasteland collection inspired by T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” An amphora is an ancient Greek or Roman jar used mostly for carrying wine. Put poetry, wine, and gold plated bronze together, and you have wearable art.
24k gold plated bronze “The Author’s Amphora” necklace, $290 at Alighieri
Editor: Samantha Durbin
Market Editor: Johannah Masters
Every item featured is personally selected by our writers and editors (read: we're totally into it). Please know that when you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission (read: we get to keep doing what we love).