Veronese Italy 925 Sterling Silver Gold Vermeil Rainbow Patina Filigree Earrings

Veronese Italy gold vermeil over sterling silver filigree drop earrings with natural rainbow patina. Each earring hangs from a small marquise shaped post top worked in the same openwork filigree as the drop below it, joined by a jump ring so the drop swings freely with the head. The drops are large marquise panels framed in smooth polished vermeil, and the interior is filled edge to edge with handworked filigree, fine scrolling volutes coiled tight against one another with rows of minute beaded granulation running between them. Three polished vermeil bars cross each panel on the diagonal, dividing the scrollwork into bands and giving the eye a structure to follow through what would otherwise be an unbroken field of curls. The backs are stamped 925 in an oval cartouche alongside ITALY and the cursive Veronese V.

What sets these apart is the patina. The vermeil has toned naturally over time into a full spectrum of color, deep blues and violets pooling in the recesses of the filigree and warm rose and amber running across the raised scrollwork, so the surface shifts as the earrings move. This is not a finish anyone applies. It is thin film interference, the same optical effect that puts color in an oil slick, produced as trace sulfur in the air reacts with the silver and builds a film only a few hundred nanometers thick. The exact color depends on the exact thickness, which means no two toned pieces ever come out alike and no one can reproduce a particular one on purpose. Collectors in the coin world have paid premiums for this effect for decades, and it shows up on jewelry far less often because most of it gets polished away long before it develops this far. Veronese built its name on Italian filigree work of this caliber, and the patina has settled into every recess of it.

These have not been polished and they will not be before shipping. The toning took years to develop and a few seconds to destroy, so that decision belongs to whoever owns them next. A polishing cloth is included in the package either way. The marquise drops are light for their size thanks to all that open filigree, and they secure with butterfly backs. Arrives packaged and ready to gift or add to your collection.

Verifications:
Gold vermeil has been verified using an Auracle Gold Analyzer.

Details:
Designer: Veronese
Origin: Italy
Metal: Gold Vermeil over Sterling Silver
Hallmarks: 925, ITALY, Cursive V
Design: Marquise Filigree Drop
Finish: Natural Rainbow Patina
Earring Style: Drop Dangle
Backing: Butterfly Back
Condition: Excellent estate condition

Fun Facts:
Italian filigree centers on Campo Ligure in Liguria, a town of a few thousand people that has produced handworked filigree since the sixteenth century and keeps a museum dedicated entirely to the craft, where artisans still coil and solder drawn wire by hand the way the scrollwork on these earrings was built.
The rainbow across these is thin film interference, the same physics that colors an oil slick on water, created as a microscopically thin layer of silver sulfide forms on the metal and splits light into its spectrum according to its thickness, which is why the color pattern on any toned piece is effectively impossible to duplicate.