Gifts of Grandeur: A Pair of Bird Head Earrings, c. 1865

Bird Head Earrings
Harry Emanuel, 1865
The Victoria & Albert Museum

In this case, I use “grandeur” loosely.  In fact, the heading should read, “Gifts of Horror”—unless of course you really like taxidermy.  I know people who do.  So, these are for you.

In the Nineteenth Century, especially toward the end, dead birds were all the rage in fashion.  The mounting of small birds (or—even better!--their heads) was quite  fashionable in jewelry in the 1860s and 1870s.

These earrings were made around 1865 by Harry Emanuel (1825-1898).  They feature the head of a feathered bird with a gold bill, red paste eyes (shudder) and gold backs. 

A visitor to Harry Emanuel's shop in 1865 described items in stock as including “humming birds' heads mounted in necklaces and earrings, complete humming bird heads, breasts and bodies, found in South America and perhaps prepared in the United States.”   So well-received was this fashion that it was displayed at the International Exhibition of 1872.