Rhinestone waterfall earrings--help with dating

Joyride Vintage

Joyride Vintage

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Hello fellow vintage enthusiasts! Today I am looking for help dating these lovely rhinestone waterfall earrings I picked up at a flea market. They do appear to be real rhinestones from their heft and the glass like sound they make against my teeth. They are closed back, with straight posts for pierced ears. The bottom (baguette cut?) rectangular stones were popular during the art deco period, and the round stones are single cut, aka 8 cut as far as I can tell. A friend looked at them and said that the straight posts on back appear to be hand soldered. They are very clear and do not appear to be color coated. There are no makers marks and the silver tone metal casing is tarnished from time. All that said, vintage jewelry is the least of my expertise, so if anyone can help with my learning it is greatly appreciated!
 

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hi...
These earrings are beautiful!!
I can't give you a proper date to these earrings, but by looking that the earring backing, I notice that they are metal stoppers. I'm not sure if they were around back in the 1920's. I think that the screw back version was far more popular for that time. I'm no expert, when it comes to dating jewellery, so hopefully someone here can be of some help to you!
 
Thanks for taking the time to respond! I agree that the stoppers are not that old, I assumed they were replacements as we all know how easy those pesky things are to loose ;) My research revealed that straight back posts for pierced ears have been around since the 20's, and your right about the screw backs being more popular--it was considered indecent to pierce your ears, but that also was the case in the 50's / 60's when clip on's were the preferred 'decent' alternative to pierced earrings. This is why I am stumped. It wasn't until the 70's that pierced earrings really became acceptable and popularized again. The Baguette cut rhinestones at the bottom keep me hopeful that these are older, but who knows--thats why I'm here!
 
My research revealed that straight back posts for pierced ears have been around since the 20's, and your right about the screw backs being more popular--it was considered indecent to pierce your ears, but that also was the case in the 50's / 60's when clip on's were the preferred 'decent' alternative to pierced earrings.
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I'm not sure on the date of these earrings, but a couple of things to consider:

Firstly someone may have had screwbacks or clipon backs replaced with the posts for pierced ears at some point, you say they appear to be hand-soldered so that might fit.

Secondly, on the matter of the indecency of pierced ears, I've heard that this depended where you were. In mainland Europe it was apparently more common (and less indecent) to have pierced ears in these periods, than in the USA or the UK.
 
Those are great insights, thanks! I was wondering about how the 'indecency' with pierced ears varied geographically too. Is it too much of a broad assumption that mainland Europe was less concerned with fashion rules about things 'indecent' or 'vulgar' than the UK and US historically?
 
I'm not enough of a historian to answer that! And I think it's too broad a question. Parts of Europe were and are deeply conservative, just not necessarily about ear piercing in particular. I don't have an reliable source for this information, it's just something I heard, so you shouldn't take it as gospel.

Hopefully one of our more knowledgeable jewelry people will be able to say something about your earrings.
 
This is an interesting article about the history of earrings (pierced or not) from ancient times to the 20th Century, and judging by the bibliography, it appears quite well researched

http://angelasancartier.net/earrings

in the 20th century section, there are number of interesting points:

"By 1900, as earrings declined in size and importance, many women stopped wearing them altogether. Some commentators denounced ear-piercing as barbaric, and women who pierced their ears were considered “fast,” or not quite respectable. (In the United States, some of the reaction against pierced ears may be credited to the desire of “native” Americans to distinguish themselves from the large numbers of immigrant women, almost all with pierced ears, who were arriving from Europe at the time.)"

(by "native" Americans, the author means earlier immigrants, not the indigenous people of America).

Then later on in the 20th Century:

"Ear piercing, while still not common, began to revive in the early 1950s; in the United States, the trend began as a fad among college girls, and Queen Elizabeth II set an example for many in England when she had her ears pierced in order to be able to wear diamond earrings she received as a wedding present in 1947"

I didn't know that about the Queen. Now there's someone who could give a trend respectability!
 
Reading further, the Queen was given the earrings in 1947, but according to this interview in 1968 with the Royal ear piercer, she didn't get her ears pierced until 1952. However it says he pierced the Queen Mother's ears in 1937!

Wikipedia says that "When it was noticed that the Queen had had her ears pierced doctors and jewellers found themselves inundated with women anxious to have their ears pierced too"
 
That looks like a fun article Ruth, and will have to go back to finish reading it. Recently, a similar discussion on ear piercing was had on another forum, and so a great topic to explore.

Those are pretty earrings Kiova. I wouldn't put them any earlier than 60's and likely a little later. The clutches may or may not be replacements, but remember when they came on the scene around the 70's or so, and agree with your later dating. I like how the earrings look on the model -- very nice.
 
I think they are 60s or 70s because of that flat metal "chain" or bar that connects the stones. I don't think I've seen that on 20's pieces.

Jen
 
Just to add I can testify that it has been common to have pierced ears in europe for many decades - I spoke to my mother who is Romanian/Hungarian/German/Serbian (in equal measures!) and it's practically the opposite sentiment in europe - a girl must have her ears pierced before christening (6 weeks old!) and it is never done as an adult (shock horror!) My German great grandmother had pierced ears and she was born around 1886 we estimate.
 
My Great Grandmother, Grace Belle Murray Connolly Cash(two marriages), once told me that her ears were pierced when she was an infant and a broomstraw was placed in her ears to keep the hole opened until it healed. She was born in the late 1800s in Petersburg, VA and was of Irish heritage. When I remember her in the 1960s, she did not wear pierced earrings, but instead little pearl button clips.....but those holes were still in her ears! I definitely think these earrings in question were late 1960s as piercing came into fad again in the mid 60s.....when my cousin and I sneaked around and pierced our ears with "sleepers." Our parents did not want us to get pierced ears, but we just had to be able to wear those pierced earrings that were so in style! Ruth, I love the article about The Queen(Elizabeth II).....I did not know that her ears were pierced!!!
 
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