Live auction 1Fine ArtSession · 18h00

202

A rare pair of "Douro" earrings with its original case

Estimate €3.000–5.000

Description

In gold of approximately 800/000 fineness.

Repoussé decoration with large volutes, flowers and bunches of grapes; detachable.

Minho region work from the third quarter of the 19th century.

With an uninventoried Porto gold assay mark (possible variant of Vidal 120) and a goldsmith's mark possibly for Manuel de Sousa Maia (reg. 1862) (Vidal 1602).

With its original silk and velvet lined case.

(in unusually fine condition, minor signs of wear; case with defects)

L.: 7.5 cm

12.2 g

Notes

It is extremely rare to find nineteenth-century traditional jewellery with its original cases. Something which, in the case of these earrings, certainly contributed to the unusually fine condition in which the pair is found.

The relationship between what we see and what we know is never complete. The way we see things is influenced by what we know, or by what we believe.
John Berger

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