Kronos earrings

Made with sheet gold, they date back to the 1st century.
Gold Earrings 1st century, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Three Gems

From Java with love

Each earring is composed of two rectangular, budlike forms, growing outward from a central, double-stemmed tendril.  They have fine granulation and are beautifully executed.

The elephant and the lion of repoussé gold are consummately detailed, using granules, snippets of wire and sheet, and individually forged and hammered pieces of gold.

The two pieces are not exactly identical: On the underside they are both decorated with a classical early Indian design of a vase containing three palmettes, but the patterning of the fronds differentiates the two earrings.

They are so large and heavy that they must have distended the earlobes and rested on the shoulders of the wearer, like the pair worn by the ruler: Chakravartin.

MFA Boston Pendant 18th century Rajasthan

Gems and gold

ornamented this land from the beginning of time