Vintage Folk Gold Plated Brass Earrings

This type of jewelry was very popular in Egypt in the 1950s because gold was (and still is) very expensive and out of reach for the peasant and shaabi classes, so they made do with gold plated brass jewelry. The jewelry created for this purpose is quite lovely and is getting really scarce to find. Here are earrings from that era with hoops and a bird in its middle. Birds are used as a motif in jewelry to imbue the wearer with happiness.The hoops are decorated with hand-etched designs.

You can see very similar examples in Azza Fahmy's book Enchanted Jewelry of Egypt.

• 4.7 cm (1 3/4") is the length from top of ear wires to the bottom of the hoop.
• Width is 2.7 cm (1 1/8").
• Weight is 5.8 g.