Or, Confessions of an Armchair Archæologist
“I hate to sound like Indiana Jones, but the Hades cup belongs in a museum.”
- Eugenia Swift, SHARP EDGES by Jayne Ann Krentz
I really do love the Indiana Jones films. Also, The Lost City, The Mummy, and Romancing the Stone . . . . Which is probably why Jayne Ann Krentz (a.k.a. Jayne Castle, a.k.a. Amanda Quick) is one of my go-to authors for adventure, romance, and cool artifacts that occasionally show up in more than one story. This list is inspired by one of JAK’s fans asking if the camera in LIGHTNING IN A MIRROR was the Tazarov camera mentioned in SIZZLE AND BURN. Apparently not, but one can always hope these objects will find their ways into upcoming stories!
The Hades Cup
The coolest of cool artifacts, the Hades Cup first appears in contemporary era SHARP EDGES (Krentz.) The Lycurgus cup housed in the British Museum, which likely inspired Krentz’s mythical Hades cup, is a 4th century Roman glass cage cup made of dichroic glass which changes color when light is shown through it, and carved so that the figures are attached to the cup only by delicate glass strands.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Green_Lycurgus_Cup.jpg
Going back in time to the 1800s, the Hades Cup makes a second appearance in DON’T LOOK BACK (Quick,) in which Lord Vale mentions the death curse associated with it . . . not that he believes in it, he says, nevertheless, he maintains that it belongs to the Club’s museum, not to him.
The Blue Medusa
First appearing in DON’T LOOK BACK (Quick,) Medusa images really are a relatively common relic found in archaeologic digs. It is possible that it makes a second appearance in the Victorian era novel THE PERFECT POISON (also by Quick,) in the underground cult scene where a strange brooch is mentioned. There is also an obscure cult's dagger present that may or may not be the one in SIZZLE AND BURN. Here, a possible inspiration for the Blue Medusa: a Roman cameo of Medusa, 2nd or 3rd century CE held by the St Petersburg Heritage Museum. Sardonice/sardonyx/chalcedony is a striated quartz agate that is sometimes used for cameo carving.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glittica_romana,_medusa,_sardonice,_II-III_sec_dc..JPG
The Cabinet of Curiosities
AFTER DARK (Jayne Castle) is the first full novel set in Harmony, a planet that Earthlings find only because a mysterious energy curtain appears in space and creates a path for the colonization of curiously uninhabited planets. Harmony is not her first venture into the future of space travel; there are the Lost Colony novels and the St. Helens novels. But Harmony is where she discovers dustbunnies! Yes, every time a new dustbunny novel is in the offing, my friend Michele and I email each other with the exciting news. The Cabinet of Curiosities. Right. This is about the artifacts. The Cabinet of Curiosities is a piece of furniture dating from the 1700s Earth Time. There are supposed to be a hundred small drawers hidden within it, but nobody has ever found them all. Emmet London’s nephew has purloined the family heirloom, and Emmet wants it—and his nephew—safely back, and he thinks archeologist Lydia Smith is the key to finding it. The cabinet appears again in the sequel AFTER GLOW, and again in LIE BY MOONLIGHT (Quick) where we learn that in the late 1800s John Stoner has it in his library. Concordia Glade discovers a secret hidden in one of the secret drawers. This video on YouTube of the Roentgen’s Berlin Secretary Cabinet gives you an idea of how complex this piece of furniture could get: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKikHxKeodA
A couple of images from antiques dealers’ websites for reference: 
1. https://alexandergeorgeantiques.com/17th-century-burl-walnut-cabinet-on-chest/
Mrs. Bridewell’s Infernal Devices & the Quicksilver Mirror
The Bridewell devices, all Victorian clockwork curiosities, have been weaponized by infusing paranormal energy into a glass feature: dolls' eyes, clock face, carriage windows, etc. A cache of Bridewell devices show up in IN TOO DEEP (Krentz) at a bomb-shelter/laboratory disaster site. The Quicksilver Mirror is the focus of a weapons deal conspiracy that very few people would believe outside of Isabella Valdez and Fallon Jones. The mirror is much older than the curiosities, created in the late 1600s or early 1700s by alchemist Alice Hooke. Both the mirror and the curiosities are featured in QUICKSILVER (Quick;) in which we discover that the Sweetwaters are a clan of monster hunters, and mirrors are very weird indeed.
(Video of William F. Goodwin Patent Walking Doll ca. 1870: https://victoriantraditions.blogspot.com/2016/04/william-f-goodwin-patent-walking-doll.html)
Mirrors
SMOKE IN MIRRORS (Krentz) features antique mirrors, including a double-image mirror in which Leonora hallucinates a vision of her half-sister Meredith. In QUICKSILVER, the Victorian rage for all things psychical, has provided Virginia Dean with a respectable living reading after-images in the mirrors at death scenes, often reassuring grieving widows, and—sometimes—providing clues to crimes. In DREAM EYES (Krentz,) mirrors are integral to the structure of an energy-enhancing machine . . . and it works. The Fogg Lake trilogy features another machine based on mirror technology: the Devil’s Ballroom. In THE VANISHING it is the first clue to the mystery of Fogg Lake’s lost history. The paranormal talent to harness the energy in mirrors shows up in ALL THE COLORS OF NIGHT (Krentz.)
The Aurora Stone
One of several crystals of power that appear in JAK’s novels, the Aurora Stone is depicted as a large, unimpressive crystal that glows in brilliant hues when used by a psychic with a talent for resonating with crystals . . . a very specific talent linked to the DNA of one Sybil the Sorceress who succeeded in tuning the stone to her personal frequency. In THE THIRD CIRCLE (Quick), Leona Hewitt explains that the stone periodically gets stolen from her family, who then must manage to recover (steal) it. This is an artifact that HASN’T shown up again in any later novels, and really, really should. I should mention a few other crystals of power.
The Sebastian Family Crystals
Three murky gray crystals that, planted, seem to enhance the natural frequencies of a vortex in nature. Think ley lines in Britain. They cause all kinds of paranormal trouble in CRYSTAL GARDENS (Quick,) and even more on Harmony where they heighten the already weird nexus paraphysics of Rainshadow Island in THE LOST NIGHT and DECEPTION COVE.
The Phoenix Stones
Crystals of unknown capabilities, which apparently caused a mine explosion . . . . The Coppersmith clan all have rings with a small phoenix stone that can generate energy. Demonstrations of channeling that energy occur in COPPER BEACH and DREAM EYES (both Krentz.) It's possible they also make short appearances in SIREN’S CALL and ILLUSION TOWN, but not credited if so. I’m hopeful that one may get cleaned out of the Coppersmith vault in the future and solve something.
Crystal Flutes
Think the Pied Piper of Hamlin. In LIGHTNING IN A MIRROR the flute has hypnotic properties, summoning the Piper's victims. Crystal flutes discovered on Rainshadow Island in THE LOST NIGHT are not of the same make, being relics of an alien civilization, and possess different properties.
I’m ignoring the Burning Lamp, because it has its own trilogy.
The Alchemist’s Venus
Made of a strange green material that nothing can dint . . . . . . bakelite????
I always imagined the Venus statue in WITH THIS RING (Quick) as something along the lines of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus realized as a sculpture. Then I stumbled upon the bakelite statuette of Ava Gardner in “One Touch of Venus,” and remembered how many plastics were invented on the kitchen stove . . . . Because Alchemy is Chemistry. She has not shown up in any subsequent novels, but there is always hope! 
Ava Gardner "One Touch of Venus" Statue. During pre-production for the romantic comedy One Touch of Venus (1948), Universal sent Ava Gardner to sculptor Joseph Nicolosi to pose for a proper life-size prop statue of her character, the titular goddess. Nicolosi's first statue was partially nude, and the studio demanded something more modest. This is a a 12.5" bakelite version of the statue, part of a limited edition that was commissioned by Universal and sent to theater owners and press members as promotional items. [Heritage Auctions https://entertainment.ha.com/itm/movie-tv-memorabilia/memorabilia/ava-gardner-one-touch-of-venus-statue-during-pre-production-for-the-romantic-comedy-one-touch-of-venus-1948-univer/a/647-22019.s]
The Nun’s Chatelaine
A chatelaine as a term for a fancy keyring came into use in the 1800s. But there are records of people hanging their keys and stuff from their belts in the absence of convenient pockets since the Roman Empire at least. The fictional Nun’s Chatelaine as described in LOST & FOUND (Krentz) was crafted as a gift for a 12th century knight's lady--giving her his trust with the keys to the castle spice and treasure rooms--and who later became an abbess. The provenance of the artifact is summed up through Victorian times and ends up in a box of costume jewelry in a 20th century estate sale. An antiques dealer acquires it and adopts it as the symbol of her business: Chatelaine’s. None of these chatelaines are old enough to have been crafted by a Medieval silversmith. 
https://www.langmann.com/silver/french-sterling-silver-chatelaine
https://pinterest.com/pin/chaos-cat-loves-this-thing-in-particular--504614333242142267/
This one is a pendant medallion,1180-90, (not for holding keys,) held by the Metropolitan Museum, with a note that similar medallions have been excavated in both England and Spain. However, it may give a better idea of the style of arts in Medieval Norman England.
I want to believe that Hugh the Relentless commissioned what became the Nun’s Chatelaine for Alice . . . call it fan fiction. I imagine a post credits scene for MYSTIQUE (Quick) in which a much older, widowed Alice unhooks her keys from her chatelaine, gives them to her adult children, mounts her palfrey, and rides contentedly away to the convent where she can devote herself to natural philosophy.
Chatelaines became very popular in Victorian England, so the decorative chatelaines that pop up in CRYSTAL GARDENS (Quick) and DON’T LOOK BACK (Quick) may not be the Nun’s Chatelaine. I just like to think so. The image below features one with a calendar, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art . . . cool – definitely NOT medieval – and I would be wearing it if I had inherited one!
Chatelaine with calendar, probably late 18th century: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/238870
In FIRED UP (Krentz), the Egyptian Queen statuette antiquity is identified as a forgery by Chloe Harper, psychic investigator and antiquities consultant, recognizing the dreamprints of her own ancestor (the Harper family has a distinct talent for fraud;) and in THE BURNING LAMP (QUICK) we get to meet the Victorian forger himself, Norwood Harper, setting up a long-standing bond between the Winters and Harper families.
Dancing Satyr with Panpipe bronze sculpture by Jules J. Labatut (1851-1935) https://cowleyabbott.ca/artwork/AW31160
A Bronze Figural Group of a Dancing Satyr and Bacchante by MAURICE GUIRAUD RIVIERE (1881-1947) Signed M. Guiraud Riviere on base France, circa 1920 https://nicholaswells.com/product/bronze-figural-group-maurice-guiraud-riviere-1881-1947/
Ignacio Gallo, Dancing with Satyr, circa 1920 https://www.ebay.com/itm/124383829709
Can you tell that Jayne Ann Krentz majored in history?
~ Xina Lowe, Librarian
