Earrings

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. Many pieces seem too large to wear comfortably, but they are usually made of very thin gold, and are much lighter than they appear.

All Italian women wore gold earrings. Their shapes varied widely in different places. This pair of earrings come from Tuscany. Large trapezoid earrings, often decorated with rows of irregular pearls, were common in Tuscany in the first half of the 19th century. The shape seems to have gone out of fashion by around 1860, and few examples have survived.

These earrings were bought as part of the Castellani collection of Italian Peasant Jewellery at the International Exhibition, Paris, 1867.