Golden Pearl Earrings

UK-based art jewellery designer Paula Bolton has taken a detail from Gossaert’s A Young Princess and transformed it into a pair of beautifully timeless earrings for pierced ears. The earrings are designed in the UK and made by craftspeople in Bali. Paula’s worked with the same family for the past 16 years, providing ethical employment that follows Fair Trade principles.

Pearl earrings have been worn for thousands of years. However, it’s only in the last hundred years, with the creation of cultivated or ‘cultured’ pearls, that they’ve become an affordable art jewellery.

These gilded silver earrings incorporate freshwater pearls; each earring has a golden bow from where the pearl is supported. It brings a contemporary twist to traditional design, resulting in an attractive style that can be worn on almost any occasion.

It’s almost 500 years since Flemish artist Jan Gossaert painted A Young Princess. This portrait, now believed to be Dorothea of Denmark, shows a girl wearing a bodice embroidered with gold thread and pearls. Dorothea was the elder daughter of King Christian II of Denmark, who was driven into exile with his family a few years before the portrait was completed.

Please note that earrings cannot be returned for hygiene reasons.