Earrings

Once the prohibition against wearing jewels had passed in post-revolutionary France, light and delicate gold jewellery became fashionable. Inspired by traditional peasant jewellery, it used filigree, seed pearls and coloured stones and in particular, carnelians.

Women’s dress had simplified with the influence of costume from classical Greece and Rome. Fine muslin fabrics draped the body, and a revealing low-cut bodice displayed coloured stones and filigree necklaces to good advantage. Hair was worn in a chignon (bun), with curls arranged around the forehead and face. With this style, women wore combs or tiaras and elongated hoop earrings, called ‘poissardes’ (French for ‘fishwives’).