Royal Tudor Small Hoop Earrings with Pearls

$52.00 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

These delicate earrings with removable charms celebrate the eye-catching pearl adornments worn by Ellen Maurice in Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's portrait (1597) at The Met. The Welsh heiress is poised in a dramatic dress embellished with lustrous pearls, which were known as the "Queen of gems" in the Elizabethan era. Gheeraerts was the preeminent painter in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean courts, esteemed for the way he so masterfully rendered sumptuous fabrics and sparkling jewels. Click here to…