Beatrix, 1857

The whole point of these Art Nouveau chandelier earrings is restraint — opals, worn thin at the back where a hand has turned it for a century, and nothing more than chased naturalistic goldwork. It is finished on the inside as carefully as on the face, where no one would ever look. The last owner was a house in Haarlem; with a note in the box naming the woman who first wore it. It is the kind of thing you buy once and never think to replace.