Let them wear earrings

So continuing my quest for the world’s best earrings from the world’s best museums, here’s a fabulous pair for The Smithsonian. I’ve never been there but it looks a visit – or two; it’s actually a collection of collection with over 19 museums under it’s umbrella!

Anyway, hidden somewhere in all of that are these – for which the word’s OMG might have been written. Big, fat, fuck-off diamonds with royal connections. These two large, pear-shaped diamond earrings weigh 14.25 and 20.34 carats respectively.

They were given to Marie Antoinette by Louis XVI and are said to have been taken from her when she was arrested fleeing the French Revolution. Amazing that they survived The Terror and ended up in the US via the Russian royalty and some rather rich Americans.

She was always the subtle sort

The Terror, so named because everyone was smiling laughing playing having heir heads chopped off was not a good time for an earring wearer. Partly because any signs of wealth led to accusations of being nobility and partly because once identified as such the general punishment was a swift decapitation which made it very hard to co-ordinate one’s outfit.

Often blamed for leading a culture of excess – and it’s hard to argue with that when you see these gargantuan baubles, defenders of the young Queen argue that she tried her best to minimize the culture of profligacy that threatened to topple the monarchy. Certainly an interesting parallel with the financial situation today although unfortunately we are too controlled, lied to and force-fed to ever rise up in revolution as the French did then.

Regardless of what really happened leading up to the revolution, Marie certainly knew how to face the final curtain in style.

With head intact

On the morning of 16 October 1793 a guard arrived to cut her hair and bind her hands behind her back. She was  paraded through the streets of Paris for over an hour before reaching the  guillotine.

The priest who had accompanied her whispered, “This is the moment, Madame, to arm yourself with courage.”

Marie Antoinette turned to look at him and smiled, “Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me.”

Legend states that her last words were “Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose,” spoken after she had stepped on the executioner’s foot.

At 12:15 on Wednesday, Marie Antoinette was executed. Her head was exhibited to a cheering crowd. Her body was then  dumped in an unmarked grave. Fortunately her earrings live on.

Ancient treasures

So I’ve decided to start searching the world’s museums, looking for some ancient artifacts that have been dug out of the sand / mud /jungle.

Archeology is a fascinating subject don’t you think? The uncovering of the lost, the rediscovery of man through the abandoned, forgotten and buried. One thing we can be sure is that earrings were as popular then as they are now.

Here’s a classy little number from the British Museum, that great storehouse of the antiquities from around the world stolen liberated borrowed by the British on their colonial conquests. It’s hard to argue that some of these items should be returned to their rightful owners but as anyone who has ever been there will tell you, it is a magical place – a monument to the ingenuity, variety and excess of men and woman over thousands of years.

So, for your delectation we have some pretty ancient specimens. There are from ‘ancient’ Greece which is about 420-400 BC. Over two and a half thousand years old, and we call it ancient? Says alot about our perception of time given that evidence suggests this city was inhabited from around 3000 BC.

These were found buried in a grave in Eretria, a location mentioned by Homer as being one of the cities that sent ships to the Trojan War.

Sailing through time

Like alot of ancient ornaments there are much more to these than meets the eye.

The boats are decorated, front and back, with tightly packed filigree designs. In each of them is a siren – a mythical monster combining the body of a bird with a female head. These have a die-formed front and a flat back sheet. Sirens were known in Greek mythology for their irresistible song that lured sailors to death on the craggy rocks where they perched. Four cockleshell pendants, with die-formed fronts and backs, are suspended by chains from each earring. Cockleshells are used frequently in jewellery, and were associated with the goddess Aphrodite. The boats are attached to a large, two-tiered rosette, with traces of enamelling, probably originally green and blue, in the inner petals.

D. Williams, J. Ogden, Greek Gold: Jewellery of the Classical World, 1994

These boats are therefore a fair approximation of the type of craft used by these ancient pioneers. In an era when the other side of the world is a plane-ride away, we’ve lost the sense of wonder and mystery that existed but it’s clear from these gems that our long-forgotten ancestors were brave and bold people, and not afraid to show off their skills in some gloriously produced earrings.

Modern blog, ancient earring

Ultimately this will be a collection and review of shiny sparky things and the people who make them – not just earrings, but bracelets and necklaces and rings too…

But mainly earrings, cos that’s what I love!!!

So to start with I thought I’d look at some really old stuff, try and learn about the history and origin of earrings.

Here’s the first thing I found – a beautiful ancient earring found in a Jerusalem carpark!

That’s a 1,500 year old gold, pearl and emerald earring (Image from National Geographic – shame they can’t accurately subtract 4-500 from 2,100!!!)

Amazing that it wasn’t melted down and turned into something else as so much jewelery seems to be! We can only imagine who wore them, but something as magic as this must have been owned by someone pretty special.

“It must have belonged to someone of the elite in Jerusalem,”  said an Israeli archeologist. “Such a precious item, it couldn’t be one of just ordinary people.”

Beautiful – sometimes we think of the past as a different place but of course they don’t do things that differently. Fashion is fashion, and what goes around comes around…

(Image from Lady of the Lake)