As early as the 9th and 10th centuries in Kievan Rus, craftsmen made pendants of various shapes (round, oval, lily-shaped, cross-shaped) from gold and silver, bronze, yellow copper, tin, and lead.

From the 17th century onwards, among the figurative pendants, there were zgardas, cross-shaped or round pendants made of bronze or brass, which were common in the Eastern Carpathians, Hutsul and Bukovyna, and dukachs, minted medallions or gold coins that hung on chains, were suspended from a brooch-bow, or were framed with decorative elements and were common in the eastern part of Ukraine and Volyn.

The production of figured pendants did not stop after the revolution in the 20th century, but Soviet pendants (mostly made of silver and gold) were not supposed to resemble tsarist times or contain Ukrainian national or religious motifs. Only individual artists from the Hutsul and Bukovyna regions, who created unique author's metal products in the style of traditional Ukrainian jewelry, were allowed to deviate from the general Soviet trends. It was only in the 21st century that zgardas, dukachs, and other figured pendants modeled after traditional Ukrainian mosyazhnyks and goldsmiths began to create them on a larger scale.

Zoriana Kuryliak

Project "Decorative metal: metal elements of traditional Ukrainian neck jewelry" is supported by the European Union under the House of Europe programme.