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Decorations: Roman

The extravagance of the Greek and Roman ladies for ear-rings almost exceeds belief. Pliny says, "They seek for pearls at the bottom of the Red Sea, and search the bowels of the earth for emeralds, to ornament their ears." Seneca tells us that a single pair was worth the revenue of a large estate. Ear-rings were worn by young men of high rank, not only as ornaments, but from superstition, as amulets or charms. The early Saxons had the same custom, and ear-rings are mentioned by Chaucer. The rage for these pendant decorations was chiefly in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Stubbs, in his "Anatomie of Abuses," 1583, mentions the women as being so far bewitched, as "they are not ashamed to make holes in their ears, whereat they hang rings and other jewels of gold and precious stones; but this," he adds, "is not so much frequented amongst women as men."

Men also wore these effeminate ornaments in the reign of James I. The ear-rings worn hy the Incas of Peru were of enormous size and richness; they were inserted wholly into the gristle of the ear, which they distended towards the shoulder. In the East Indies they are also of immense size, frequently as large as saucers, and generally of gold and valuable jewels. An incision is made through the ear, and a filament formed of cocoa-nut leaves tightly rolled together is thrust into the opening. This filament is constantly enlarged, till it has stretched the orifice to two inches in diameter. The perfection required being then attained, the wound is allowed to heal, and the ear bears its precious and ponderous ornaments.

Some rich and beautiful ear-rings of English and Spanish work of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were exhibited, in 1872, at the South Kensington Museum.