A chronological history of antique jewelry would take us back many years ago some 27,000 years to be more accurate, in Namibia. There man’s artistic expressions would have been carved into a piece of jewelry made from a dry piece of stick or the bone of a bird into an earring or a necklace. Such pieces of antique jewelry are rare to find because of the very nature of the material in use then like the pendant in bone from Tunisia some 15,000 years ago. Egyptian jewelry would come much later around 4500 BC in the region of El-Badari from where antique earrings, crowns, girdles and brooches have been found made of silver and gold and their alloys with copper. The periods of the Pharaohs, Nefertiti, and Tutankhamun were the golden periods for antique jewelry. Then came the period of the industrious and technologically savvy pre-Columbians around 4000 BC. These were highly developed people who used copper and its various oxides and the lost wax process for making their jewelry. Some of the antique jewelry from the period is cast in brass plated with silver and then with 24 ct gold and then protected with a coat of lacquer! They had used platinum and there are exquisite antique earrings from this period. Chinese jewelry is now 5000 years old. The ancient jewelry pieces have religious connections, some with a Buddhist background besides pagan symbols like the phoenix and the dragon. Complex and large size antique earrings have been found from this era in bronze, silver and gold. Some of the other classic examples of antique jewelry go back to the Vikings from around 800 AD and the Russian, Victorian and French jewelry from the 17th century onwards. A few of the most attractive pieces of ancient museum earrings are the Sumerian Hoop Earrings in lapis and sterling silver from 2500 BC, classical Greek heart earrings with garnet and pearl in sterling silver from 450 BC and Celtic swirl earrings from around 500 BC. Equally impressive is a set of Faberge earrings, late 20th century and West African Crescent earrings in gilded sterling silver.
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