‘Brincos à Rainha’

Queen Style Earrings

‘Brincos à Rainha’ or ‘À Vianesa’, ‘À moda da Rainha’, or ‘Mulher Fidalga’ or of ‘Burguesa Rica’ – they are very elegant and , unlike the ‘arrecadas’, they were adapted copies of the earrings and ‘laças’ (=laces) that appeared in Portugal during the reign of D.Maria I.

The shapes were simplified, so a lot of workmanship was saved. The diamonds were removed and so was the silver (many of those jewels were made of silver faced with gold). In the diamonds place the goldsmiths put some saliencies in faced gold (to simulate those stones); a mobile part, like in the ‘arrecadas’, was added, as well as the ‘moons’, the round shape, the triangle as a closing and the ‘SS’. They are made of three mobile parts and have a hook closing mechanism in the back. In the middle they have a small ring, which is the vestige of the support of a supra-auricular hook that used to exist when the earrings were too heavy. They are known in certain villages as ‘picadinhos’ or ‘princess’ earrings.