'.......... and if there's anything left over, make me a ring give my ring forty-five stones so when my mother beats me I can hide in that' The Goldsmith and the Maiden, Zakynthos, Cephalonia. The Neohellenic jewellery in museums and private collections is distinguished by its impressive quality and remarkable variety. Many of these rare and precious pieces are published and so known in the bibliography. Spanning a broad continuum in space and time, they illustrate aspects of both Turkish-occupied Greece and the Hellenic diaspora after the fall of Byzantium in 1453.

Fig 1 Pectoral of Metropolitan Parthenios of Caesaria. Greek work from Constantinople, 1738. The perforated double-sided pectoral is decorated on one side with precious stones-rubies, sapphires, emeralds- and on the other with painted enamels and representations of the Holy Trinity and the Desis. Athens Benaki Museum, inv. no. T.A. 147.

These exquisite objects, valuable reflections of the panorama of Hellenism, include not only jewellery wrought by native craftsmen but also that of foreign origin which was incorporated in the Greek tradition, remodelled and adapted, its variations taking their place alongside ancient Greek and Byzantine memories in the artistic history of this land. The tradition of silver- and goldsmithing in Greece is lost in the mists of time. In Greek mythology Hephaestus, god of fire, the `divine smith', appears as the inventor of metalworking. In his Olympian forge he fashioned such magnificent works as Achilles' shield, Herakles' golden breastplate, Zeus' sceptre and throne, Ariadne's wedding crown. In the course of 5,000 years miniature creations in metal, noble or base, have made their mark on Hellenic civilization.

Fig 2 Gold pendant from Patmos, 17th-18th century. Three-masted caravel with open sails decorated with coloured enamels and pearls. Such jewellery, worked by Greek craftsmen probably in Venice from Western designs, was worn in the Dodecanese and Cycledes islands during the 17th and 18th centuries. Athens Benaki Museum, inv. no. 7669.

In more recent times, among the elements composing the distinctive character of Neohellenic art (16th - late 19th century) the deeply ingrained Byzantine tradition merits special mention. Heir to the an of ancient Greece, it in its turn bequeathed to posterity forms and shapes, colours and materials, imprinted in new creations. Diverse influences of Western inspiration, nurtured by and filtered through Greek antiquity, also reached Greece via the Venetian-held territories, while the later invasion of baroque and rococo traits from Italy and Central Europe, as well as the impact of the highly decorative aesthetic of Islamic an, were readily assimilated by the skilful Greek craftsmen.

Fig 3 Gold earrings from Siphnos, 17th-18th century. Three-masted caravels with multicoloured enamels and pearls. Ornate surfaces like transparent gold lace with enamelled details echo the influences of European rococo sailing ships hang from bows topped by a crown. Athens Benaki Museum, inv. no. 7670.

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