Earring
1830-1867 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
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 Sicily, and is typical of those worn in southern Italy.
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
All Italian women wore gold earrings. Their shapes varied widely in different places. This earring comes from Sicily, and is typical of those worn in southern Italy.
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
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Gold set with red foiled pastes, with pendant pearls |
| Brief description | Gold girandole earring set with red pastes and pendant pearls, Naples (Italy), 1830-1867. |
| Physical description | Girandole earring of openwork floral design, set with red foiled pastes in high conical mounts. Seven pendants along the lower edge, each strung with a pearl on a strip of wire. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Woman's head between the characters 'N' and '6' in a rectangular frame (Marked on the front of the top section, at top, on the front of the main section, at left, and on the base of each pendant. Mark used for gold, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (southern Italy) 1832-1872.) |
| Summary | 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 Sicily, and is typical of those worn in southern Italy. 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 |
| Bibliographic reference | 'Italian Jewellery as worn by the Peasants of Italy', Arundel Society, London, 1868, Plate 11 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 294-1868 |
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| Record created | February 15, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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