Do Men Wear Pearl Jewellery?

The answer is a resounding ‘yes’ but let’s look a little at the history.

Earlier centuries

If you look at male portraits of the 14th-17th centuries, you’ll often see men wearing elaborate jewellery. This continues for much longer, well into the 20th in non-European societies such as those in North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

The men concerned are, of course, almost exclusively royalty or nobility though sometimes also of the rich merchant classes. If you look, you’ll see pearls play a massively prominent part in the masculine jewellery of the time. This includes items such as earrings, brooches, necklaces (none of which were considered exclusively feminine at the time) and rings.

In many portraits, the men are as festooned as the women or even more so.

The 18th century

In Europe and North America, for reasons that aren’t clear, male use of jewellery in general (not just pearls) starts to decline in the later 17th and18th centuries.

It may have simply been fashion changes, or perhaps the effects of Puritanism earlier on or it could have been the increasing association of males with the rationality and theoretically anti-frippery of the times.  The industrial revolution also played a part as males become more and more associated with steel, iron and steam.

Victorian plain-dress also exacerbated things until male jewellery becomes largely restricted to pocket watch fobs, sometimes rings and military medals.

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