Pair of Earrings with Snap-on Covers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beauty and practicality are combined in these diamond drop earrings with removable “coach covers.” Two old mine cut diamonds are set in gold floret, prong mountings and dangle from gold hooks. The spherical, hinged “coach covers,” also made of gold, are coated with black enamel and snap closed to conceal and protect the valuable diamonds while the wearer is traveling. Snap-on earring covers were an American innovation of the 1870s and 80s, and were generally made with black enamel or inconspicuous gold ornamentation.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art