Italian women have always loved lavish display. Even for the poorest, a rich show of jewellery was all important. Italian goldsmiths were expert at making a little material go a very long way. They used thin sheet gold to make impressive pieces of jewellery, and decorated them with glass stones made to look like real gems. The red pastes in this earring have been backed with metallic foil to improve their colour. Red and gold are the dominant colours in Italian traditional jewellery.

All Italian women wore gold earrings. Their shapes varied widely in different places. This earring comes from Avellino, in Campania, and is typical of those worn throughout southern Italy and Sicily. It carries gold marks for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from the early 19th century.

It was bought as part of the Castellani collection of Italian Peasant Jewellery at the International Exhibition, Paris, 1867. At the top of the wire there is a small loop, through which the wearer threaded a ribbon, to help relieve the strain on the ear-lobe.