Earrings

Nothing is more a sign of poverty than not using earrings. Who would excuse a woman from the old days, no matter how humble her origin, without her ‘arrecadas’? Without the slightest sympathy, people would call her a ‘fanada’ (= incomplete, with something missing).

To better judge how humiliating the lack of earrings was, we just have to say that the women would promise to the saints to remove them as a sacrifice – it was a very special thing to take into consideration! Do not doubt that it was a real torment to be considered ‘fanada’ during, one, two or three months, sometimes even a year! That was why people would comment: “In what state of despair she must have been in order to promise such a thing!” really, that sort of promise was seen as a truly stoic act!

To leave the pair of earrings in the goldsmith’s was a rare thing, because one had to try to fool the gossipy people. Therefore, the women would use the false argument of the injured ear – the one that was without the earring, of course! To better act this illusion, that is to say, to better convince the others, she’d put grease in the corresponding lobe.

Viana’s ‘Arrecadas’

They are also known as ‘argolas filigranadas’ (= filigree rings), of ‘bambolina’ or of ‘pelicano’ (=pelican), which refers to the mobile moon crescent – these last two designations are of popular origin. They are the heiresses of the ‘Castrejas’, that suffered some metamorphosis till nowadays, but still maintain its essence, though with minor alterations.

It’s one of the few cases of goldsmithery where the upper social class imitated pieces of a more popular origin.

 Nowadays they have a circular shape, with the lunule in the ‘bambolina’ or pelican, ‘SS’ and an inverted triangle as a finishing. They’re made with open ‘filigrana’, can have a ‘conta’ from Viana in the rabbet of the lock or all around it (usually five).

The more ‘fidalgas’ (=more sophisticated) are made with thinner and tighter ‘filigrana’ and sometimes with some precious stones, without the pelican.