RETIRED James Avery Solid 14K Gold Faith Hope Love Anchor Charm Pendant - Uncut

Retired James Avery solid 14K gold Faith Hope and Love charm pendant with an uncut loop, marked 14K with the James Avery candelabra and copyright. The design builds all three symbols into a single continuous form rather than clustering them. A cross stands at the top, its lower arm descending as the shank of an anchor, which passes through the center of an open heart and ends in flukes that sweep out and up at the base. The heart is pierced all the way through, so the charm reads as solid gold with one bright opening at its center, and the three forms are so cleanly resolved into each other that the eye takes a second pass to separate them.

The symbolism is the oldest shorthand in Christian art. The cross is faith, the anchor is hope, the heart is love, taken from Paul's letter to the Corinthians: and now these three remain, faith, hope and love. James Avery produced this design across his line, but the overwhelming majority of what exists is sterling silver. The solid 14K gold version is a substantially harder piece to find, and finding one with the loop still uncut and the box present is harder again, since the loop is the first thing removed when a charm goes onto a bracelet.

0.75 inch including the loop. At that scale it works equally as a charm on a bracelet or on a chain of its own, where it reads as a single small gold mark rather than a statement piece. Comes with the James Avery box.

Verifications:
Solid 14K gold has been verified using an Auracle Gold Analyzer.

Details:
Maker: James Avery
Metal: Solid 14K Gold
Hallmarks: 14K, James Avery candelabra, copyright symbol
Design: Faith Hope and Love
Motifs: Cross, Heart, Anchor
Loop: Uncut
Length: 0.75 Inch with loop
Packaging: James Avery box
Status: Retired
Condition: Excellent estate condition

Fun Facts:
James Avery began in 1954 in a two car garage in Kerrville, Texas, handcrafting pieces himself with almost no capital and no staff. What grew out of that garage became one of the most recognizable American jewelry houses, and the candelabra mark stamped on the back of this charm is the signature that has identified the work from the earliest pieces forward. Collectors track that stamp the way others track a silversmith's touchmark.
The anchor was a Christian symbol of hope long before it was a nautical one, and the reason is a single line in the letter to the Hebrews describing hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It appears throughout the Roman catacombs in first and second century funerary carvings, where it is widely understood to have carried a double reading, since an anchor viewed a certain way is a cross with a curve at its base. A believer saw one thing and a passerby saw another.