Rare Kingfisher Feather Earrings
Remarkable antique earrings formed as Koi carp with striking iridescent blue kingfisher feathers. The technique, known as Tian-Tsui (literally "dotting with kingfishers"), has been featured in Chinese art for at least 2000 years and involves painstakingly cutting out sections of feathers to be glued onto gilt silver. The effect is similar to cloisonné, but the feathers produce an electrifying and intense color that's impossible to create using enamel (the vibrant iridescence isn't produced by pigments in the feathers themselves, but rather - as with morpho butterfly wings - by the way light is bent and reflected back out). The fish have articulated scaled bodies. The art of Tian-Tsui died out during the Chinese Revolution in the 1940s.
Remarkable antique earrings formed as Koi carp with striking iridescent blue kingfisher feathers. The technique, known as Tian-Tsui (literally "dotting with kingfishers"), has been featured in Chinese art for at least 2000 years and involves painstakingly cutting out sections of feathers to be glued onto gilt silver. The effect is similar to cloisonné, but the feathers produce an electrifying and intense color that's impossible to create using enamel (the vibrant iridescence isn't produced by pigments in the feathers themselves, but rather - as with morpho butterfly wings - by the way light is bent and reflected back out). The fish have articulated scaled bodies. The art of Tian-Tsui died out during the Chinese Revolution in the 1940s.
Remarkable antique earrings formed as Koi carp with striking iridescent blue kingfisher feathers. The technique, known as Tian-Tsui (literally "dotting with kingfishers"), has been featured in Chinese art for at least 2000 years and involves painstakingly cutting out sections of feathers to be glued onto gilt silver. The effect is similar to cloisonné, but the feathers produce an electrifying and intense color that's impossible to create using enamel (the vibrant iridescence isn't produced by pigments in the feathers themselves, but rather - as with morpho butterfly wings - by the way light is bent and reflected back out). The fish have articulated scaled bodies. The art of Tian-Tsui died out during the Chinese Revolution in the 1940s.