Antique Georgian Day Night earrings 18k gold cannetille amethysts French (7586)

Antique Georgian earrings - Louis XVIII (reigned 1814-1824) and Louis Philippe I (reigned 1830-1848). 18k gold, amethysts and small pearls. Made in France 1819-1838. 
 

Measurements:

Weight is 4.9 grams. A little over 1 1/2 inches (4cm) long.  

Description :

Day Night or Top Drop pair of earring ear pendants. 
Surmounts are ovals with oval amethysts of a wonderful bright, deep purple color enclosed in a crimped bordered colette setting. This is surrounded by cannetille work of wires and golden spheres or globules that form a flower around the amethyst. The surmounts can be worn alone by day or with the drops at night, hence the names top-drop or day-night earrings. 
The drops connect to the tops via loops that allow them to swing and sway as the wearer moves. They are tear-drop shaped.
The upper triangular part is all in gold - a pair of repousse gold leaves, engraved and naturalistically modelled enclose a naturalistically modelled gold pear. A very close look at the foliage reveals the belier or ram's head mark (see below). 
Below the triangular form is a circle formed of an outer ring of gold cannetille, a beautiful purple amethyst flower, centered by a small pearl. Amethysts and pearls are held in crimp-topped colette settings that match the cannetille work. Very delicate openwork ring of gold wirework and globular flowers. 

Original ear wires go from back to front of ear lobes. A small hook at the end click them into place.
These are true Day Night or Top Drop earrings. The drops are very easily removed from the wires so that you can wear the surmounts alone by day and then return the drops for a more elegant and dramatic look at night. 

As always, the French workmanship is the top quality. Beautiful design. The clever use of complimentary colors - gold and purple - add to the stunning appearance of these earrings. 
While these ear pendants are of medium size, they command attention via their rich coloring, great design and sense of movement.

Marks and Metal:

The wire on the surmount of each earring has the ram's head facing left mark. This was used in France for 18k gold between 1819-1838. A very worn mark is near the catch of the wire - not adequately legible to make out.   
Hidden in the foliage of the drops, are another pair of ram's head marks (belier in French).     In addition, we had gold electronically tested to ensure metal purity (18k).

Condition:

Good with negligible wear commensurate with age.  Please see enlarged pictures and don't hesitate to ask questions which we will do our best to answer.   

THE STORY:

Hundreds of years ago, amethysts were considered more valuable than sapphires, rubies and emeralds. While that changed a long time ago, we still associate amethysts with religious and secular royalty. It is the color of bishops and royal hierarchies of Europe. While amethysts originate in many geographical locations, the best amethysts came from Siberia.
When amethysts are of a lovely deep purple, much like these, with great glitter and gleam, we still call them "Siberian amethysts" regardless of having them checked for origin.

During the Georgian era, gold was in scarce supply. To give a bigger look and convey the appearance of more gold, the technique of cannetille was developed. It is especially associated with England during the period 1820-30, but the French were doing their own version of cannetille even before that. Cannetille is reminiscent of filigree work because of the wires, but it is 3-dimentional, whereas filigree is only 2-dimentional. In my experience, French and English cannetille are distinguishable because the French cannetille is more floral (exactly like these earrings), while the English features a lot of big pyramidal forms. 
French marks