A PAIR OF GOLD AND SEED PEARL DROP EARRINGS, SOUTHERN ITALY, EARLY-MID 19TH CENTURY

A PAIR OF GOLD AND SEED PEARL DROP EARRINGS, SOUTHERN ITALY, EARLY-MID 19TH CENTURY, each composed of three sections, with a stylised ribbon-tie motif above a scrolling link suspending a wrythen drop, all in gold and decorated with seed pearls, later hook fittings, length 9cm, gross weight 17g, case

Cf. Charlotte Gere and Judy Rudoe, Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Mirror to the World, British Museum Press, 2010, p. 320, no. 276, for an image of similar jewels collected by the jeweller Castellani and displayed at the 1867 International Exhibition in Paris, now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, and Daniela Mascetti and Amanda Triossi, Earrings from Antiquity to the Present, London, 1990, p.64, for a similar pair of earrings dated to the late 18th century