Original Queen Anne 'Coque de Perle' pendant earrings in a rare style utilising the 'boss' of the nautilus shells back to back to mimic a large pear-drop pearl c.1700-1740.The top shell is fitted in the typical gilt-metal dog tooth setting.
Length of earrings 1.5inches.
An exceptionally rare survivor retaining all the original creamy lustrous shells and the eccentric 'double wig loop' hinged fittings. The truly exotic nature of these earrings is hard to imagine today.To obtain nautilus shells from the East Indies in the early c18th would be the height of luxury. The famous jeweller Jean Henri Prosper Pouget writes in 1760 about procuring the shells "from a beautiful snail found in the sea in the East-Indies" and that the shells "must be filled with tears of mastic to give them body".