Antique 1900s Edwardian Micro Mosaic Dove Drop Earrings

A truly remarkable and rare Italian antique micro mosaic earrings. These earrings are made of solid 12 ct gold and are decorated with a perfectly preserved micro mosaic.

The mosaic depicts two beautiful doves surrounded by florals. From the ancient times a pair of doves spiritually represent love, friendship, and peace. Doves have an angelic feeling to them and encountering a pair of doves is believed to be a good omen. It can also sometimes be a symbol of profound fidelity and innocence, other times it represents something pure and loving.

These beautiful antique drop earrings have a back-to-front wire lock and will make a beautiful special occasion gift for yourself or someone special in your life!

Hallmarks: none- tests as 12 ct gold;
Dimensions: 1 x 0.6 inch or 2.7 x 1.7 cm;
Weight: 9.2 grams.

From the Renaissance micro mosaics began to be made in Italy, reaching the height of their popularity in the mid 19th century, when Rome was the centre of production; there was a Vatican Mosaic Studio from 1576, set up to create mosaic replicas of the altarpieces in St Peter's Basilica, which were being damaged by the humid conditions of the vast and crowded interior. They were popular purchases by visitors on the Grand Tour, easily portable, and often taken home to set into an object there. Typical scenes were landscapes of Roman views, rarely of any artistic originality, and the micro mosaics were small panels used to inset into furniture or onto snuffboxes and similar objects, or for jewellery. Religious subjects were copied from paintings. The very smallest mosaic pieces come from works from the period between the late 18th century and the end of the 19th. Fortunato Pio Castellani (1794–1865) expanded the range of subjects in his work in the "archeological style", copying Roman and Early Christian wall-mosaics. It was even imitated by porcelain painters, who painted faint lines across their work to suggest the edges of tesserae.

A distinctive feature of micro mosaics is that the tesserae are usually oblong rather than square. The best work can achieve 3,000 to 5,000 tesserae per square inch. The best collections are in the Hermitage Museum and the Gilbert Collection in London. Asia has produced a number of contemporary examples using modern precision machinery to produce the diminutive elements. (source: wikipedia)

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