Portuguese Diamond & Gold Jewels c. 1700

Parure of Gold & Diamond Earrings and a Pendant

This elegant and fine pendant and earring set is of fine lace-like gold filigree and old-cut diamonds in box settings. The style of the set is very much in keeping with early 18th century Portuguese style. Most probably the set was made in Belgium copying the Iberian style. Such a style became popular in Portugal during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The new popularity of such jewels at this time was stimulated by the immense influx of gold, silver and gems into the Iberian Peninsula from the colonised Brazil. The styles that developed at this time influenced jewellery elsewhere and most particularly to Portuguese colonies and settlements around the word such as in India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

The set here comprises two sets of earrings and a pendant. It is likely that the two sets of earrings originally were one set but were made into two as styles changed and a preference for shorter earrings emerged.

The gold is unmarked. A curious aspect of the set is that backing plate for the box setting for the central diamond of the middle section of the pendant is off- centre, although the box-setting itself is centred.

The set is in a fine, stable and wearable condition. Overall, the set is tremendously refined and elegant.

Muller, P.E., Jewels in Spain 1500-1800, The Hispanic Society of America, 2012.

Museu Nacional de Soares de Reis,

Guide to the Collection, Porto, Portugal, 2001.

d’Orey, L.,

Five Centuries of Jewellery: National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon, Zwemmer Publishers, 1995.Provenance:

UK art market