Enamel Coral and 18ct Gold earrings. A matched pair of very fine gem-quality Corals, of Mediterranean origin, from a Coral bead necklace handcut in Italy for the English market of the late Victorian period, around the late 1800s.
The Mediterranean, since antiquity and beyond, has been a major source of this treasured and much-loved gemstone. In Asia, historically, there have been other sources of “noble” Coral, both off the coast of Japan and off the coast of Taiwan, but very little still comes out of these waters; the Mediterranean remains a source but there too supply is diminishing. Good gemstone Coral has become rare.
The English of the 1800s loved “noble” Coral in all its colour hues, from pale salmon pink through to blood red. The strong orange-red of the above gemstones is a deep saturated colour, particularly fine examples of this lovely gemstone.