(c) 2016 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

(c) 2018 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Pendant with Four Leaf Clover

compiler Isabella Stewart Gardner (New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston)

jeweler Unknown

Dateabout 1899

Place MadeUnited States, North America

MediumCrystal and silver, clover

Dimensions4.9 x 3.3 cm (1 15/16 x 1 5/16 in.)

ClassificationsJewelry

Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Accession numberU18e50

eMuseum ID718660

EmbARK ObjectID13093

TMS Source ID2100

Last Updated8/14/24

Status

Not on view

Web CommentaryIsabella Stewart Gardner presided over the construction of her museum between 1899 and 1901. According to her first biographer, Morris Carter, she discovered this four-leaf clover at the groundbreaking and took it as a good omen. Claiming that it was “the only 4 leafed clover I ever found,” she placed it in this crystal and silver filigree case for safekeeping and displayed it in the museum’s Little Salon.

BibliographyNotesMorris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925), p. 177.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 146.
Ellen Promise,"Treasure Chest: Isabella's Gilt Vitrine," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 4 April 2023, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/treasure-chest-isabellas-gilt-vitrine.

MarksNotesInscribed in graphite in Isabella Stewart Gardner's hand (on an accompanying label): "Four leafed clover picked by me as I stepped out of my trap at Fenway Court, during its building. The only 4 leafed clover I ever found. I.S. Gardner" [in Isabella Stewart Gardner's hand]

ProvenanceNotesPicked by Isabella Stewart Gardner at the groundbreaking of the museum in June 1899 and made into a pendant at a later date.