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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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NOTICE -

 

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I  have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

 

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

 

I have done  a limited amount  of  editing. Messages having to do  with separate topics  were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the  message IDs  were removed to save space and remove clutter.

 

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make  no claims  as  to the accuracy  of  the information  given  by the individual authors.

 

Please respect the time  and  efforts of  those who have written  these messages. The copyright status  of these messages  is  unclear  at this time. If information  is  published  from  these  messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

 

Thank you,

   Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous

                                         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

 

<the end>



Formatting copyright © Mark S. Harris (THLord Stefan li Rous).
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Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org