19th Century Siam Pearl Bunch Earrings - Lost Owl Jewelry

Lost Heirloom

1850s Siam Pearl Bunch Earrings

Name: 1850s Siam Pearl Bunch Earrings
Brand: Lost Heirloom
SKU: LO2416
Price: 1400.0 GBP
Availability: InStock

£1,400.00

During the 19th century, in the newly established Royal Court in Bangkok, a new dynasty of Thai rulers had regained control from the Burmese. The first king of the Chakri dynasty (the dynasty that still rule Thailand today), king Phutthayotfa Chulakok (Rama I), started commissioning jewellery that would become famous the world over. It was Rama I who, nostalgic for the lost beauties of the Ayutthaya (the centuries-old empire that was toppled by Burmese armies in the 1750s), commissioned a set of royal regalia - crowns, body-chains, pendants, gold swords, etc. - fit for a, well, King of Siam. But his successors didn't stop there:

"Visitors in the mid-19th century [when these earrings were made] during the reign of Rama IV (King Mongut) remarked on the splendid jewels worn at the court. Sir John Bowring, the British envoy, recorded the flexible gold belts ornamented lavishly with diamonds worn by the prime minister and his son. He attended a royal audience at which the king was clad in crimson garments, a headdress resplendent with diamonds and other precious stones, and a gold girdle with a dagger enriched with gems. On other days the monarch was dressed in blue or gold and wore enormous diamond rings and a diamond-studded cap." - 'The Jewelry of Southeast Asia', Anne Richter (1949) p67

By the end of the century, the jewellery had evolved to incorporate Western elements, directly inspired by Rama V's fixation with the work of Russian jeweller Carl Fabergé. "In late 19th-century Bangkok, European goldsmiths and jewellers such as the German F. Grahlert, who was initially employed at the royal court, founded businesses that served locan and expatriate demand for Western styles." Ibid p69

These remarkable earrings were made in (what was then) the Kingdom of Siam, circa 1850, very much in the traditional style. They were likely originally worn hung from a gold belt as described above, or armlets, and have since been repurposed as (rather magnificent) earrings. Each one comprises a central, cone-shaped bunch of seed pearls and granulated gold with cloisonné enamelled caps at the top and bottom - white and deep navy blue pools of enamel, some round some heart-shaped.

My initial assumption was that they were Sicilian, 18th century, on account of the way that the pearls are set in bunches, however very similar examples can be found in the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Arts in Budapest, Hungary. Accession Nr. 1172, for example.

Unrelated to these earrings specifically, but nonetheless interesting: "Takrut are tubular metal amulets that may be made of gold, silver, or base metal. One, three, five or seven little cylinders inscribed with or enclosing a sheet of magical formulae were worn around the neck or the waist on a cotton string or metal chain... Tiny takrut, called, salika, were inserted between the teeth to grant eloquence, under the eyelid to assist in positive eye-contact, or under the skin from where they might travel to protect any part of the body or aspect of the soul at risk. It was customary in other parts of Southeast Asia, including Burma, the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia, to place a tiny fragment of gold or even a diamond under the skin for similar purposes." - Ibid. p68

Era: Rattanakosin Kingdom, circa 1850

Size: 4.3cm (from top of ear wire) by 1.2cm

Stones: Natural Pearls

Marks: None, tested as 18ct gold (ear wires tested as 9ct)

Condition: Good antique condition, light wear consistent with age including some minor losses to the enamel and some surface wear to the outer pearls

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1850s Siam Pearl Bunch Earrings

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