Description
Henry VIII, the bombastic, colorful, sometimes brutal, Tudor King who turned England Protestant in his desperate quest for a male heir is today best remembered for his wives and his daughters. Henry was fierce, larger than life, like the playwright who would immortalize his daughter’s reign, he was bawdy and brilliant by turn. Renaissance kings were jealous men. And as a rule they felt that rules were for other men -and that women were to be ruled over. Even in the world of fashion Henry kept the finest velvets, the thickest furs and the largest jewels for himself. During the reign of Henry the men of court wore earrings, their wives often did not. But the Renaissance brought change. And today we remember Henry as the father of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, the disinherited Princess who would reign for nearly half a century over the bright Summer of the English Renaissance. Daughter of an executed and reviled Queen, patroness of playrights and pirates, Elizabeth made Tudor England her England and her father’s jewels her own. Inspired by a woman who adapted the world to suit, and refused to be crushed by circumstance or time, we decided to adapt this lovely still-slightly-gothic Tudor belt fitting design to re-make as a pair of earrings. A foliated quatrefoil this design is, at first glance, charmingly simple. Yet, if you look a little closer you will notice that there are two smaller quatrefoils within the greater quatrefoil and that the crosses are actually made up of several small fleur de lis.
Earrings fit for a queen, or any other self-made woman. A hint of the Renaissance. Cast bronze, finished with sterling silver hooks, faceted dark red Garnets and lustrous cultured freshwater semi Baroque “coin” pearls.
