Mastery of Design: The Pozzuoli Girandole Earring, 1800-1850

Click image for detail.

Earring
Italy, 1800-1850
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Italian jewelers are often heralded for their lavish designs, but, it’s important to note that, historically, the Italian jewelers are also some of the best at using materials in creative and unexpected ways.

For example, jewelers at the south of Italy took advantage of the warm Mediterranean waters and farmed the gorgeous seed pearls which, there, were abundant in the days before the Industrial Age. Thin gold wires allowed the pearls to be fastened in glorious clusters. This fashion, almost evocative of food, grew into delicious, rich mounts of densely-set multi-colored stones. No more so was this lush style apparent than on the earrings created in Italy in the early to mid Nineteenth Century when Italian women’s appetites for ear baubles was at an all-time high. Grand Tour visitors to Italy noted the glorious earrings sported by the Italian women and brought the fashion to London, and Paris where girandole earrings soon dangled from the most aristocratic lobes.

Here’s a smashing example of such a girandole earring. Sadly, we’ve only got one. Made in Pozzuoli in Campania between 1800 and 1850, this earring has an interesting story. It was shown at the International Exhibition of Paris in 1867 as a perfect representation of Italian craftsmanship. There, despite its uncertain date of creation and unknown jeweler, it became a star of the show. A representative of the famed jewelry firm of Castellani purchased the piece to add to their growing display of Italian Peasant Jewelry—a collection which was used by the firm as inspiration for their own wares. The earring was praised for its enormously rich design as well as the cleverness of the addition of a ribbon (now lost) through the gold loop at the top of the jewel. This ribbon could be tied around the ear to relieve the strain that the heavy jewel would have placed on the earlobe. The earring served its purpose for Castellani who copied it and adapted the style into its archaeologically-inspired line of jewels. 

Let’s look at it, shall we? The girandole earring is adorned in the Southern Italian style with strings of seed pearls. These surround conical mounts which appear to be set with rubies. They are not, however, rubies. They are, in fact, pink sapphires which are backed in red foil. Small pastes of green wax imitate emeralds. The overall effect is one of pure luxury.