Royal Tudor Forward-Facing Hoop Earrings with Pearl Drops

These stylish contemporary earrings celebrate the splendid pearl adornments worn by Ellen Maurice in Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger’s portrait (1597) at The Met. The Welsh heiress is poised in a dramatic dress embellished with lustrous pearls, which were known as the “Queen of gems” in the Elizabethan era. Gheeraerts was the preeminent painter in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean courts, esteemed for the way he so masterfully rendered sumptuous fabrics and sparkling jewels.

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