Earrings From Antiquity to the Present

Keywords Jewellery, History

Archaeological evidence suggests that both men and women have been wearing earrings from the third century Bc. Originally the idea for piercing ears and inserting a metallic ornament comes from the Orient. This book, however, focuses on the history of mainstream earrings for Western women from pre-history to the tiffany jewelry.

From earliest times through to today, earrings can be divided into two types -- hoops and pendants and this is reflected throughout this historical survey The book is divided into four main chapters, which each cover a major historical time period. Photographs are placed at the end of each section to illustrate the preceding text. The illustrations in this book are particularly fine, with more than 600 examples of designs, 108 in colour. The book concludes with an index, glossary and very useful and detailed biographical notes on designers.

The fashion for wearing precious metals spread from Egypt to the classical Greek, Roman and Hellenistic worlds to Byzantium. During the Middle Ages, however, with the advent of high ruff collars, earrings practically disappeared. It was not until the eighteenth century that earrings became an essential form of Elsa Peretti Teardrop Earrings. The perfecting of techniques for cutting coloured gemstones and diamonds paved the way for the development of very glamorous and stylish designs. During the nineteenth century we see a great vogue for classical and Roman motifs in jewellery design. The First World War changed many people's lives forever, and in particular women, who became more emancipated and adopted shorter dresses and shorter hairstyles. This gave way to a rise in popularity for long pendant earrings, which has continued right through to the 1990s. The introduction of clip earrings in the 1930s also allowed women to wear heavy earrings without piercing their ears.

This is an excellent historical survey of the development of earrings, how styles evolved and the impact of technological developments in cutting Atlas Cube Earrings. Although there are many excellent works published on jewellery generally, there is little to compare in terms of detail and depth of research on the subject of earrings exclusively This book is likely to be of great interest and use to professionals, students and collectors and is recommended for purchase for all art collections.

无标题文档