Polished sterling silver drop pendant, set with a round cabachon of genuine honey coloured Baltic amber. Length 36mm, width 17mm.

Amber is fossilized tree resin (not sap), which has been appreciated for its colour and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewellery. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurs in a range of different colours. As well as the usual yellow-orange-brown that is associated with the colour "amber", amber itself can range from a whitish colour through a pale lemon yellow, to brown and almost black. Other uncommon colours include red amber (sometimes known as "cherry amber"), green amber, and even blue amber, which is rare and highly sought after.