Unknown Maker, American

Adornments made of precious materials have served as outward displays of status since ancient times, but inventiveness and technology have often provided less expensive alternatives. These earrings and brooch were made not from solid gold, but from “rolled gold” or gold fill, which bonded a layer of gold to a base metal. This was one of the many innovative techniques integral to Providence becoming a center of jewelry production in the late 18th-century and well into the 20th century.