10th-12th century AD. A matched pair of gold earrings, each a round-section wire loop with hollow sphere and granule collar, hollow disc to the lower end of the loop with granules, three graduated hollow ridged bulbs below with granule detailing. 4.45 grams total, 54-56mm (2 1/4"). From an old Oriental collection. Cf. Bollok, A. Byzantine Jewellery of the Hungarian Conquest Period: A View from the Balkans, plate 2 and 3; Albani, J. Elegance Over the Borders: The Evidence of Middle Byzantine Earrings, plates 12-15 in Entwistle, C. & Adams, N. Intelligible Beauty, Recent Research into Byzantine Jewellery, London, 2010. [2]

Fine condition, one upper bulb absent.