Stephen Dweck Pearl Earrings

Stephen Dweck is known as the “romancer of the stones” for his bold use of faceted gemstones and semiprecious stones in silver settings. The Brooklyn-born jeweler is inspired by a deep love of nature, handpicking gemstones and minerals, such as moonstones and white quartz, from around the world to create colorful, sculptural necklaces, earrings and other pieces that have been worn by the likes of Drew Barrymore and Barbara Walters.

“I use stones as an artist works with paints,” Dweck once told Robb Report. By selecting stones for their color, shape and other features, rather than just their value, no two pieces are alike, and each reflects a distinctive vision.

Dweck, who studied sculpture at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, founded his eponymous house with a collection of stone bangles in 1981. He continues to operate his family-run business in the working-class neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. While his rings and other accessories can be found in major department stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, he also consults with clients on special commissions from his atelier. Among his most unique details are the small “Adam” silver and bronze beetles that often adorn his pieces.

Despite being a relative newcomer to the scene — a few decades of operation is the blink of an eye in the jewelry world — Dweck’s pieces are already in impressive collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas. They’ve also been seen on screen in such shows as Fox’s Empire.

Find a collection of vintage Stephen Dweck jewelry on 1stDibs.

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.