Earrings
- Place of origin:
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
- Materials and Techniques:
Chased gold, micromosaic and pearls
- Credit Line:
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Museum number:
LOAN:GILBERT.132:1,2-2008
- Gallery location:
Gold, Silver & Mosaics, room 72, case 7
- Image in copyright
These earrings and matching pendant (Loan.Gilbert.131-2008) are not based on a surviving ancient model, but are a freer adaptation of classical jewellery found by archaeologists. Quirky novelties were fashionable in jewellery at the time. The designer has miniaturised the ewer form and decorated it with brightly coloured mosaic.
The term 'micromosaic' is used to describe mosaics made of the smallest glass pieces. Some micromosaics contain more than 5000 pieces per square inch. The earliest attempts at micromosaic revealed visible joins between the pieces (known as tesserae) and a lack of perspective. Later artists such as Antonio Aguatti made huge advances in micromosaic technique, resulting in renderings that were truer to life. Glass micromosaic technique developed in the 18th century, in the Vatican Mosaic Workshop in Rome, where they still undertake restoration work today.
Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.
Physical description
A pair of earrings in the shape of an urn with a scroll handle decorated with rosettes. The body of the urn is decorated with a band of heart-shaped cannetille below a band of pearls, and the entire body is covered with colourful glass mosaic in floral and leaf motifs. From the lip of the ewers spills out three gold chains, each tipped by a pearl.
Place of Origin
Rome, Italy (made)
Date
ca.1870 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Chased gold, micromosaic and pearls
Dimensions
Height: 4.8 cm, Width: 1.0 cm, Depth: 1.2 cm
Object history note
Provenance: S.J Phillips, London, 1976.
Historical significance: The pieces are decorated using ancient techniques, cannetille and glass mosaics. Cannetille is a decoration, sometimes in gold, on decorative objects consisting of wire twisted to form filigree-like scrolls and rosettes.
Historical context note
This set is in an archaeological style of jewellery introduced by the Roman workshop Castellani in the nineteenth century.
Descriptive line
Earrings in shape of ewers. Micromosaic, gold and pearls, Rome, ca. 1870.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Gabriel, Jeanette Hanisee with contributions by Anna Maria Massinelli and essays by Judy Rudoe and Massimo Alfieri. Micromosaics: The Gilbert Collection. London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd. in association with The Gilbert Collection, 2000. 310 p., ill. Cat. no. 187, p. 251. ISBN 0856675113.
Schroder, Timothy, ed. The Gilbert Collection at the V&A. London (V&A Publishing) 2009, p. 78, plate 60. ISBN9781851775934
Labels and date
Pendant and earrings in the shape of ewers
About 1870
This pendant and earrings are not based on a surviving ancient model, but are a freer adaptation of classical jewellery found by archaeologists. Quirky novelties were fashionable in jewellery at the time. The designer has miniaturised the ewer form and decorated it with brightly coloured mosaic.
Rome, Italy
Gold, glass micromosaic and pearls
Museum nos. Loan:Gilbert.131; 132:1, 2-2008 [2009]
Materials
Gold; Pearl; Mosaic glass
Techniques
Chasing; Micromosaic
Subjects depicted
Ewers
Categories
Metalwork; Jewellery
Collection code
MET
