Antique Earrings between £0 and £0
Pairs of gem-set earrings in gold, silver and platinum, made across the last two centuries for no purpose beyond ornament.
What Are Antique Earrings?
Almost every listing is a pair, and almost every pair is gem-set and mounted in precious metal. Gold is named in around two thirds of titles, diamond in over a third. Single earrings turn up as oddities rather than stock, so the category is effectively sold two at a time.
The shape you'll meet most is a gold-mounted pair with a coloured stone or diamond, either as a drop hanging below the fitting or a stud sitting on the lobe. 9ct is the commonest metal statement, with 18ct, silver, platinum, 15ct and 14ct behind it. Cluster settings, several stones grouped round a centre, account for about one title in ten. Screwback, hinge-back, lever-back and hook fittings all appear.
Four strands run through the archive: 9ct gold gem-set studs and drops, which make up the bulk of the lower and middle of the range; diamond earrings in 18ct, white gold and platinum, which hold the top; Victorian and Edwardian work including Etruscan revival, cannetille, jet and pique tortoiseshell; and Art Deco pieces in silver with paste or marcasite.
The dealer date field runs 1800 to 1960, and the largest buckets are the 1950s and 1960s, ahead of Victorian and Edwardian. A good deal of what sells under the antique earrings heading is mid-century, including Scandinavian sterling silver with enamel, moonstone or amber, clipped or screwed to the lobe. Where the date reads Victorian or Georgian, that's a dealer's reading of style rather than a year.
Top And Bottom
Stated diamond weight is the clearest divider. Titles that quote a carat figure run from a fifth of a carat on a modest stud up through four, six and, at the very top, fifteen carats of diamond content. Metal follows the same line: 9ct sits under the lower and middle of the range, while 18ct, 15ct and platinum cluster with the diamond pieces above.
Named old cuts pull upward. Old cut, old mine, old European and transitional cut all appear in titles, alongside rose cut, and words like natural, no heat and natural saltwater pearl recur among the higher-priced pairs. A stone described by its cut and its natural origin is doing more work than one simply named.
Hand-worked goldsmithing separates the antique pairs from the plain gem-set stud. Etruscan revival granulation, cannetille coilwork, filigree, micro mosaic, pique tortoiseshell and plique-a-jour all sit well above the standard mount. Scale and substance count too, with large in a fair number of titles and several Victorian gold pairs sold on stated gold weight.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for earrings between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
The oldest pair to pass through Sellingantiques is Roman, in gold and garnet on fishhook wires, dated simply "Before 1700".
The Antique Earrings between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Drop
- An earring whose ornament hangs below the fitting, sometimes called a dangle. The commonest single form in the archive.
- Stud
- A single ornament on the lobe with a post behind it, second only to the drop by count.
- Cluster
- Several stones grouped round a centre, often a diamond or sapphire cluster stud. About one title in ten.
- 9ct, 15ct, 18ct
- Gold fineness in carats out of 24. 9ct is the commonest here; 15ct is a distinctively Victorian and Edwardian British standard.
- Paste
- Glass cut and foiled to imitate gemstones, usually set in silver. Marcasite, faceted iron pyrites in silver, is the recurring Art Deco cousin.
- Dormeuse
- French for sleeper, a small drop meant to be worn continuously. Recurs among French-dated pieces.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are most antique earrings actually Victorian?
No. The two largest date buckets in the archive are the 1950s and the 1960s, and between them they outnumber the Victorian and Edwardian listings.
Victorian and Edwardian work is still a strong presence, roughly a fifth to a quarter of the category, and it's where Etruscan revival, cannetille, jet and pique tortoiseshell appear.
What metal turns up most often?
9ct gold, named in around a third of all titles and the single commonest metal statement. It carries the everyday studs and drops.
Above and beside it sit 18ct, silver, platinum, 15ct and 14ct. The 18ct, white gold and platinum mounts cluster with the diamond pieces at the top of the range.
Do single earrings ever come up for sale?
Rarely. The category is sold in pairs, and dozens of titles say so outright.
One lone Victorian silver acorn drop is offered on its own, which gives some idea of how unusual singles are.
How many earrings are listed each year?
Around 217 pairs a year on Sellingantiques, handled by 54 different dealers. That's one of the broader dealer bases on the site.
The full archive runs to over 1,500 listings, with 949 of them carrying a clean year rather than an era label.
Which stones and materials appear beyond diamond?
Diamond is named in over a third of titles, but garnet, amethyst, sapphire, ruby, moonstone, amber and pearl all run through the archive too.
Non-precious materials appear in smaller numbers: jet, pique tortoiseshell, bakelite, phenolic, micro mosaic, pinchbeck and plique-a-jour each turn up a handful of times.
What are the odder pieces in the archive?
A pair of Roman gold and garnet drop fishhook earrings dated before 1700 stands alone as the only listing not from the last two and a bit centuries.
Turkmen tribal drops from the Merv Oasis appear once, as does a pair in Portuguese 19.2ct gold, a fineness recorded a single time.