Chinese Silver Earrings

Pair of Silver Pendant Earrings

This fine pair of pendant earrings is pierced and engraved with phoenix and frog motifs. A multitude of silver chime-like tassels are suspended from each of the lower panels. Related earrings are illustrated in Duda (2002).

Such earrings were popular among merchant classes in southern China during the later Qing Dynasty, in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

According to Duda, during the Communist era, such jewellery appears to have been collected by the authorities and held centrally, and then in the 1970s, the Beijing government eager to earn foreign exchange decided to sell off its holdings of such jewellery to Western dealers, often by the kilogram. The jewellery poured out of China, mostly to the United States. Such jewellery has now become much more scarce.

The earrings are in a fine, stable and wearable condition.