Modern South Sea Pearl Earring
2010s American Modern Modern Bracelets
Diamond, Pearl, Natural Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
Vintage 1960s Modern Dangle Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold
Vintage 1980s European Modern Drop Earrings
Moonstone, South Sea Pearl, Gold, 18k Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Unknown Modern Dangle Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Drop Earrings
South Sea Pearl, Diamond, Pearl, 14k Gold, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Dangle Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold
2010s German Modern Chandelier Earrings
Amethyst, Diamond, South Sea Pearl, Peridot, 18k Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Drop Earrings
South Sea Pearl, Gold, 14k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Stud Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, Platinum
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Dangle Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Clip-on Earrings
South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
Early 2000s English Modern More Earrings
South Sea Pearl, 14k Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Dangle Earrings
Diamond, Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Contemporary Drop Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 14k Gold, White Gold
2010s American Modern Clip-on Earrings
Emerald, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Stud Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, Platinum
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Drop Earrings
South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Stud Earrings
South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
2010s American Modern Dangle Earrings
Pearl, Natural Pearl, South Sea Pearl, Yellow Gold, Gold, 18k Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Stud Earrings
South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
Vintage 1980s Unknown Modern Dangle Earrings
South Sea Pearl, Sapphire, Gold, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
2010s American Modern Chandelier Earrings
South Sea Pearl, Gold, 18k Gold, White Gold
Vintage 1980s Italian Modern Clip-on Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
2010s American Modern Lever-Back Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 14k Gold, White Gold
2010s Indian Modern Chandelier Earrings
White Diamond, South Sea Pearl, Rose Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Drop Earrings
South Sea Pearl, Gold, 14k Gold, White Gold
2010s Turkish Contemporary Drop Earrings
Cultured Pearl, South Sea Pearl, Turquoise, Enamel, 18k Gold
2010s American Modern Clip-on Earrings
Citrine, Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 14k Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Dangle Earrings
Cultured Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
2010s Italian Modern Chandelier Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary North American Modern Dangle Earrings
Cultured Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
2010s American Modern Dangle Earrings
Natural Pearl, Diamond, White Diamond, South Sea Pearl, Gold, 18k Gold, ...
21st Century and Contemporary North American Modern Stud Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary North American Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, Cultured Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Clip-on Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Drop Earrings
South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
2010s American Modern Drop Earrings
South Sea Pearl, Sapphire, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
2010s English Modern Drop Earrings
South Sea Pearl, Diamond, Pearl, Gold, 18k Gold, White Gold
2010s Modern Dangle Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Japanese Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Dangle Earrings
South Sea Pearl, Turquoise, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Hong Kong Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, White Diamond, South Sea Pearl, Tourmaline, Pearl, 18k Gold, Ro...
2010s Turkish Contemporary Drop Earrings
Cultured Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Enamel
2010s Italian Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
Late 20th Century American Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, Gold
2010s American Modern Clip-on Earrings
Pearl, Natural Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Gold, Yellow Gold
2010s Contemporary Dangle Earrings
Diamond, Multi-gemstone, Pearl, Black Pearl, Cultured Pearl, South Sea P...
Vintage 1980s Italian Modern Clip-on Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary North American Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, Cultured Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary North American Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, Cultured Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Drop Earrings
Aquamarine, South Sea Pearl, Peridot, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary North American Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, Cultured Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Unknown Modern Dangle Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary North American Contemporary Dangle Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
Vintage 1970s Spanish Modern Stud Earrings
Diamond, Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
Vintage 1970s Spanish Modern Stud Earrings
Diamond, Pearl, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
2010s Indian Modern Stud Earrings
White Diamond, South Sea Pearl, Ruby, White Gold
2010s American Modern Drop Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, Gold, 14k Gold, Yellow Gold
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Modern South Sea Pearl Earring For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Modern South Sea Pearl Earring?
A Close Look at modern Jewelry
Rooted in centuries of history of adornment dating back to the ancient world, modern jewelry reimagines traditional techniques, forms and materials for expressive new pieces. As opposed to contemporary jewelry, which responds to the moment in which it was created, modern jewelry often describes designs from the 20th to 21st centuries that reflect movements and trends in visual culture.
Modern jewelry emerged from the 19th-century shift away from jewelry indicating rank or social status. The Industrial Revolution allowed machine-made jewelry using electric gold plating, metal alloys and imitation stones, making beautiful jewelry widely accessible. Although mass production deemphasized the materials of the jewelry, the vision of the designer remained important, something that would be furthered in the 1960s with what’s known as the “critique of preciousness.”
A design fair called the “Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes” brought global attention to the Art Deco style in 1925 and gathered a mix of jewelry artists alongside master jewelers like Van Cleef & Arpels, Mauboussin and Boucheron. Art Deco designs from Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels unconventionally mixed gemstones like placing rock crystals next to diamonds while borrowing motifs from eclectic sources including Asian lacquer and Persian carpets. Among Cartier’s foremost design preoccupations at the time were high-contrast color combinations and crisp, geometric forms and patterns. In the early 20th century, modernist jewelers like Margaret De Patta and artists such as Alexander Calder — who is better known for his kinetic sculptures than his provocative jewelry — explored sculptural metalwork in which geometric shapes and lines were preferred over elaborate ornamentation.
Many of the innovations in modern jewelry were propelled by women designers such as Wendy Ramshaw, who used paper to craft her accessories in the 1960s. During the 1970s, Elsa Peretti created day-to-night pieces for Tiffany & Co. while designers like Lea Stein experimented with layering plastic, a material that had been employed in jewelry since the mid-19th century and had expanded into Bakelite, acrylics and other unique materials.
Find a collection of modern watches, bracelets, engagement rings, necklaces, earrings and other jewelry on 1stDibs.
Finding the Right earrings for You
In the United States, ear piercing didn’t really become popular until the 1950s and ‘60s, but our desire for a dazzling pair of vintage earrings has deeper roots than that. In fact, wearing earrings actually goes back thousands of years, and you can find many tangible connections between now and then in how we continue to talk about these treasured accessories.
Women wore ornamental earrings — studs and hoops at the very least — in Ancient Egypt, which is home to mines that are among the earliest sources of emeralds in the world. Emerald earrings are highly prized today, and their quality lies in their rich, saturated color. The highest-quality emeralds are green or bluish-green. Earrings worn by the affluent in early Roman civilizations were set with precious stones such as diamonds and pearls, and a clean-looking pop of pearl on the front of the lobe is as timeless as ever. Hoop earrings are imbued with symbolism and cultural significance for many, and on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Ancient Near Eastern Art Gallery is a pair of simple gold hoops from Mesopotamia dating to between 2600 and 2500 B.C.
Today, ear piercing is very popular all over the world, and, as a result, it is difficult to overstate how much everyone pines for a good pair of earrings — modernist drop earrings, glamorous Victorian hoops, geometrically complex chandelier earrings, you name it. Sure, jewelry trends and the fashion darlings of social media come and go, but earrings have a staying power that seems impenetrable: The still-strong love affair between British royals and Cartier earrings is more than a century old, glossy 1970s hoops from legacy houses such as Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels remain the statement makers they’ve always been and although people have been stacking earrings for many moons, the allure of an expertly mismatched stack of charms and studs still feels fresh and new.
While there is no shortage of modern earring designs to choose from, the classics, like coral earrings, Art Deco–style earrings and diamond drop earrings are still heavy hitters. On 1stDibs, find a wide range of antique, new and vintage earrings today.