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Coral Cannetille Pendant Earrings
$14,500
Dating from the early 19th century, these gold cannetille pendant earrings are set with coral. Each pendant earring formed of delicate hand fabricated gold wire is designed as a domed top of pendant leaves, tendrils and tiny rosettes suspending a large orange coral drop surrounded by a flexible fringe of tapering gold drops with spherical terminals. Ethereal, voluminous, imbued with a floating lightness and dancing movement, these magical pendant earrings are rare and beautiful.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: ER-21065
Country: Possibly France or England
Circa: 1820s-1830s
Dimensions: 3.00" length x 1.00" width
Materials: 2 coral drops measuring approximately 20.70 x 11.70; 18K Gold
Inspired by regional French and Italian fabrics and filigree jewelry, high style jewelry of cannetille work was a new, labor intensive technique dating from the 1790s. Thread cannetille work refers to the intricate, elaborate, tight designs of delicate wire coiled and looped into forms resembling fine, light gold lace. Highly labor intensive, and a clver response to the scarcity of gold in the post-Napoleonic period, this work was often highlighted by semi-precious colored stones - for instance the large pink and golden topaz, amethyst, and chrysoberyls that had been discovered in Brazil in the mid 18th century.