ear-rings-msg - 7/12/02

Medieval ear rings. Men's and Women's.

NOTE: See also the files: jewelry-msg, finger-rings-msg, gem-sources-msg, pearls-msg, metalworking-msg, metals-msg.

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                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: "E. L. Wimett" <SILVERDRAGON at Charleston.Net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Did men where earrings in 16c England?
Date: 18 Mar 1997 01:50:47 GMT
Organization: Silver Dragon Company

eric <cire at mail.nwinfo.net> wrote...
> I would like to know if men wore earrings in 16c England.
> If so, was it in both ears?
> 
> Archibald

Yes.  A number of portrait miniatures of nobles show pearl drops and,
at a lower social level, the naval tradition of wearing earrings clearly goes
back to at least the sixteenth century, based on contemporary descriptions
and illustrations.

Alisoun

From: finnian at flash.net (Finnian)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Did men where earrings in 16c England?
Date: 18 Mar 1997 19:02:16 GMT

cire at mail.nwinfo.net says...
>I would like to know if men wore earrings in 16c England.
>If so, was it in both ears?
>
>Archibald

Absolutely! But probably not as simple decoration.  The wearing of a golden 
earring was purported to be a preventive measure against fevers and colds.

Finn

From: ghislaine1 at aol.com (Ghislaine1)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Did men where earrings in 16c England?
Date: 18 Mar 1997 19:27:19 GMT

The noble gentlemen as well as the upper middle class gentlemen wore
earrings.  There are several portraits from period that show them wearing
simple pearl drops. They were normally worn in one ear (you decide which).
 
There is supposedly some documentation of men wearing hoop earrings in
both ears but they tended to be attributed to merchant sailors and
pirates....

Lady Ghislaine d'Auxerre

From: Ben Mandus <bmandus at ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Did men where earrings in 16c England?
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 14:33:20 -0500

Also, the fishermen in the Hebrides would wear a gold coin earring
to pay for a proper Christian burial, should they die while at their
work, the body be lost at sea, and later wash ashore.  I'm aware the
Hebrides are Scotland, not England, but are part of the British Isles.

Cheryl Mandus

From: lobel at is.nyu.edu (Sheldon Lobel)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Did men where earrings in 16c England?
Date: 18 Mar 1997 17:01:13 GMT
Organization: New York University

There's at least one portrait of William Shakespeare which clearly shows
at least one earring.

Nahum Kuzari

From: Eric & Lissa McCollum <ericmc at primenet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Did men where earrings in 16c England?
Date: 19 Mar 1997 01:00:06 -0700

I was just reading on this subject this evening,
from a book called "Tudor and Jacobean Jewellery"
by Diana Scarisbrick. Here is the pertinent paragraph:

"Philip Stubbes, in his Anatomie of Abuses (1583),
attacked the 'dissolute minions...not ashamed to make
holes in their ears whereat they hang ringes and other 
jewels of gold and precious stones.' James I, who disliked
nothing so much as the sight of men with earrings, took the 
same view, but, in spite of his disapproval, portraits show 
them worn at his court. Sir Walter Raleigh hung two pear 
pearls in one ear only, and Sir Gilbert Houghton has a 
wounded heart hanging from the cipher s in one ear, too, 
in a portrait by Paul van Somer."

An excellent book, by the way.

Gwendolen Wold

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: wp823 at freenet.victoria.bc.ca (Jo Beverley)
Subject: Re: Did men where earrings in 16c England?
Organization: Victoria Freenet Association
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 20:06:57 GMT

Christina Mcmenemy (christymack at delphi.com) wrote:
: "E. L. Wimett" <SILVERDRAGON at Charleston.Net> writes:
:  
: >> I would like to know if men wore earrings in 16c England.
: >> If so, was it in both ears?
: >> 
: >> Archibald
:  
: Yep, just look at the famous portrait of Shapespeare or any of his
: contemporaries. However, I've never seen any of these men with both
: ears pierced - just one (there was no consensus about which ear).
: An interesting note: just about 30 years before it became popular
: for men to pierce their ears and wear earrings, having your ear
: pierced was considered punishment for vagrancy(for men only). I guess
: it was some sort of branding thing - people would know you had been
: a vagrant by seeing your ear. Amazing how things change in such a short
: time...

I think you'll find that the punishment ear piercing was a large, 
mutilating hole. More of a punch.

Jo, the lurking romance writer.

Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 11:41:11 -0500
From: Gunnora Hallakarva <gunnora at bga.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Period Earrings 500-900 A.D.

To add to the theme of earrings in period, I have an outstanding book which
has literally dozens of pairs of earrings pictured dating from 500-900 A.D.
 The earrings are all loops which tend to have a pendant at the bottom of
the loop and granulated metal ornaments at 3 and 9 o'clock around the
circle.  The loop is open at the back of the loop just above the granulated
ornament on that side.  Several of these earrings have stones set up the
front of the loop as well.

While most are obviously for pierced ears, some look as though they were
hung over the ear rather than attached to it (hard to say, though -- these
might open somewhere and actually be for pirced ears, you can't tell from
the photos)

The book is:
Dekan, Jan.  Moravia Magna: The Great Moravian Empire, Its Art and Times.
Minneapolis: Control Data Arts. 1981.  ISBN 0-89893-084-7

The Moravians were living in an area bordered by the River Oder in the
north, the Danube and Drava Rivers in the south, extending as far west as
the Elbe and in the east past Cracow to the Ondava River.  Their neighbors
included the Sorbs, Wends, Saxony, Franconia, Bavaria, Ostmark, Carinthia,
Slavonia, and the Magyars.

Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde

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