The cloisonné enamelled gold discs decorated with gold beading on the outer rim, the four faces each depicting a different scene, two of which are applied with a background of Royal blue enamel featuring a bird, one poised on a branch while the other is shown in flight, their reverses applied with a lacquer red enamelled ground featuring objects associated with Japanese culture, one depicting floral motifs together with an open fan ornamented with rabbits and a full moon symbolic of fertility, while the other shows a vase containing yellow blossoming lotus accompanied by Japanese tea bowls.
Signed with the poinçon of Alexis Falize.
The earrings are contained in their original Japanese silk-covered case. They were acquired from Falize by Tiffany & Co. and the firm’s name is stamped on the lid satin together with its 550-552 Broadway address, indicating the earrings were offered for sale before 1870 when Tiffany & Co. moved to Union Square.
Alexis Falize employed the exceptionally talented Antoine Tard to carry out his opaque cloisonné enamels, the technique perfectly translating the scenes and motifs depicted in the woodblock prints produced by a number of Japanese artists including Katsushika Hokusai. Alexis Falize owned his fifteen-volume Manga which contained sketches of a wide range of subjects including flora and fauna which were reflected in many of the designs for jewellery produced by Falize.
Examples of such works by Alexis Falize are represented in many museum collections including the British Museum, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their technical excellence prompted the South Kensington Museum (later renamed the Victorian and Albert Museum) to acquire such works as early as 1867 when they were displayed for the first time at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.
To date just one other cloisonné enamelled jewel in the Japanese taste has survived in a Tiffany & Co. stamped case. It is a locket owned by the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated in Falize, A Dynasty of Jewellers by Katherine Purcell, p.61.
