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Earrings

Worn across cultures for millennia, earrings remain among the most enduring and expressive styles of jewellery. Crafted in gold, silver and platinum, they are often adorned with diamonds, pearls and coloured gemstones, or shaped through intricate metalwork and enamel. Designs range from minimalist studs to elaborate chandelier styles, continually reimagined by maisons such as JAR, Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier. In 2016 the Miroir de l’Amour — a pair of pear-shaped diamond earrings by Boehmer et Bassenge — was sold by Christie’s for CHF 17.6 million, underscoring the enduring appeal of this jewellery form.

A GYPSUM BAS-RELIEF WALL-SLAB FROM THE NORTH-WEST PALACE OF ASHURNASIRPAL II AT KALHU (NIMRUD), 883-859 B.C., depicting a beardless royal arms bearer/eunuch ( sha reshe ) and a bearded winged divine figure about to come into the king's presence. The eunuch wears a tasselled and fringed upper garment, pendant earring, necklace, arm and wristlet with rosette design; he carries a rosette-headed mace, bow and quiver decorated with rosettes, cones and palmettes. The divine figure ( apkalle ) wears a horned cap, pendant earring, necklace, arm and wristlet; two daggers, one with decorated handle, and a calf-headed whetstone are inserted in his waist-band; in his right hand he holds a cone with which he 'anoints' the attendant and in his left he would have held a situla. Across the lower part of their bodies are bands of the standard cuneiform inscription listing the king's titles, claims and achievements including the building of his palace

A MAGNIFICENT ISLAMIC BRONZE LION of powerful stylised form, the face with pointed oval eyes, the pupils formed by semi-circular depressions, the mouth slightly agape with central circular aperture, the nostrils realistically modelled, the nose, lips and one ear apparently originally inset with panels of another material, the mane engraved in the form of stylised loops, the back with an overall design of engraved and pounced circles within a border formed of a band of benedictory kufic , each of the four haunches engraved with inverted drop-shaped panels of scrolling vine around the figure of a bird or griffin, various small square holes around the body, probably Spain 11th/12th century (lower legs missing, slight damages)