Girandole is a type of earring which has three danging pear shaped ornaments suspended from a central bow motif.  This style of earring was created in France around the year 1700.  The name came from crystal candelabras also known then, as now, as girandole.  This style was notorious in the 18th century and was worn often by nobility and courtesans. When this style went out of vogue, many of these earrings were taken apart and reassembled as necklace pendants or for some such alternate purpose.  This design came back into fashion during a Rococo revival in the 1870s and still retains its relevancy to this day.

“Prizing elegance, sweet emotions, and fantasy more than morals and truth; wallowing in fleeting romance rather than trying to give meaning to life, when who knows what’s going to happen to you anyway; ignoring virtue and conventions to cherish only the pleasures you are definitely experiencing now: this is the Cocoro of Rococo. No matter how much deep thought, hard work, and agonizing effort went into coaxing out some insight, if that insight is boring, or not beautiful, it doesn’t matter. And even if something is made just for laughs, if you find it pleasing, it has value. Other people’s opinions and labor do not figure into your assessment; choosing things with your own personal sense of “I like this, I don’t like that” is the ultimate individualism that sustains the very foundation of Rococo. Rococo, therefore, embodies the spirit of punk rock and anarchism more than any philosophy. Only in Rococo—elegant yet in bad taste, extravagant yet defiant and lawless—can I discover the meaning of life.”
― Novala Takemoto, Kamikaze Girls

Courtesy of Skinner Auctioneers, Jewels du Jour, Christie’s