Hello again with another mini episode about filigree.
In Dalmatia, every larger village, town and island had (still has) its own style of filigree, most recognisable through earrings and pendants.
Below are examples of different styles of earrings:
(Warning: the post is image-heavy!)
Split style - as a large port, there were also wealthy merchants and nobles living in Split. There are two distinct styles: košarice ('baskets') and cvjetići ('flowers')
4 pictures below are of košarice
And these are cvjetići (with corals, turquoise, onyx and pearl)
I managed to find some old photographs of Split jewellery.
(source: narodni.net)
Dubrovnik style - Dubrovnik probably has the largest variety of styles. As a former Republic of Ragusa, it was home to many wealthy merchants and nobles.
The earrings you see below are the most common and most recognisable style. They were also made of gold. The most common pendant was pearl, mother of pearl and coral.
These two styles are also available in our webshop Coral | Pearl (there are two sizes, large and 'standard')
Here are some authentic earrings from the Republic.
(source: www.toka-hr.com, www.leksikon.muzej-marindrzic.eu)
Korčula - these are called feralice (from the word 'feral' meaning 'lantern')
(Korčula often made earrings out of corals, unfortunately I couldn't find any historical examples)
(source: www.toka-hr.com)
Islands of Pag and Murter
Šibenik - where the toka shape originates (they call it 'puce' or 'botun', both meaning 'button'), although toka shape had become widespread all over Dalmatia and some towns/islands even had their own distinct style (such as Korčula above)
Below are styles that were worn all over Dalmatia and don't officially 'belong' to any town so they were called simply 'Dalmatian earrings'
Let us know in the comments which of these are your favourites!