Published
Earrings have been worn by both men and women throughout history. The piercing was done very simply by a needle and a cork. The needle was sterilsed by passing it through a candle flame for a few seconds and then left to cool. A lump of ice could be used to numb the ear, the cork was held behind the ear and the needle driven through the lobe and into the cork. The lobe was then wiped with alcohol, usually gin, to clean it. Just as a note of interest, as I find this rather fascinating, it is believed that sailors wore an earring in one ear to indicate they had sailed to distant lands and also to pay for their burial at sea. If they died at sea, whoever found them would take the earring and sell it, using the proceeds to give them a reasonable burial.
When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, the humble earring’s popularity was beginning to decline, mainly due to changes of hairstyles which now concealed the ears. However, by the 1860’s they became, once more, fashionable, especially the drop earrings or pendant style. Mostly they had fish hook, or shephards hook, style wire. In the later part of the 19th century,the African diamond mines produced higher quantities of diamonds, therefore they became more readily available and accessible, so diamond studs became popular. Pearl studs for the day and diamond ones for the evening. It was around this time that pierced ears fell out of fashion. It’s hard to say why, maybe it was snobbery – pierced ears were considered to be associated with low morals, but out of fashion it went, fortunately in 1894 Screwback earrings were invented which meant earrings were once again fashionable. Sadly, I can’t find any actual research to back up this date, but this date appears on a lot of jewellery websites. It seems clip on earrings became the rage in the 1920’s and 30’s and stayed that way until the 1960’s, when ear piercing became fashionable once again.
Jilly