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A lady with a love for literature and shiny things discusses books & bling.

Annette Ferdinandsen’s jewelry is spring incarnate.

I’ve admired Annette Ferdinandsen’s jewelry for quite a while, but I only recently had the opportunity to see her work in person. And yes – I took pictures!

Annette Ferdinandsen Design blossom branch earrings with turquoise and mother of pearl in gold

Annette Ferdinandsen’s jewelry is spring incarnate.

Oh my darlings, I have something so pretty to share with you today! Annette Ferdinandsen Design is a contemporary jewelry brand known for their nature-inspired jewels. To quote the designer’s website, “Annette Ferdinandsen’s jewelry evokes the exquisite beauty of the natural world in abiding pieces that are elegantly formed with a modern sensibility.”

I happened across Annette Ferdinandsen’s booth at the NY Now trade show while I was there covering the emerging designers of Curated at Luxury Lifestyle. Annette Ferdinandsen Design is a more established brand, but I couldn’t resist spending some time getting to know their work while I was there.

Up above, we have the Annette Ferdinandsen Design blossom branch earrings with turquoise and mother of pearl in gold. Aren’t they wonderful? The delicate, wandering lines of the branch adorned with tiny perfect blossoms makes these earrings an extraordinary take on the standard floral earring.

Frog and lily pad rings by Annette Ferdinandsen Design, with gemstones and pearls in gold.


Switching gears from flora to fauna, please enjoy this lineup of Annette Ferdinandsen Design frog and lily pad rings with gemstones and pearls in gold.

The use of distinctive natural gemstones is another signature of this designer’s style, but in this little collection here, she elevates it further by adding little gold and gemstone frogs or gold and pearl lily pads.

Frog prince ring by Annette Ferdinandsen Design, with malachite and pearl in gold.


Don’t worry, I knew you needed a froggie closeup. Do you see his crown??? This is no average amphibian, folks. We’re in the presence of certified Frog Prince with regal ruby eyes.

I like this side view because it also shows you the ring shank – rather than a single band, it features branching extensions to help that hefty chunk of malachite stay on the top of the finger instead of wobbling or rotating.

Annette Ferdinandsen Design butterfly wing earrings with opals in gold


These are the Annette Ferdinandsen Design butterfly wing earrings with opals in gold. Look at those precise, gently curving organic lines – you can really feel that this piece is handcrafted by a jeweler with serious talent.

This designer has a few different wing-inspired designs and they’re all spectacular. See more here.

Gold snake rings by Annette Ferdinandsen Design


Not all snake rings scream spring to me, but these sinuous little slitherers look like they belong in the same moonlit garden as all of the pieces we’ve seen so far.

This is three rings: one with a diamond, one with a ruby, and one with diamond pave.

Annette Ferdinandsen Design carved turquoise parrot earrings in gold


As someone who grew up with pet birds, I can’t tell you how much these carved turquoise parrot earrings fill me with delight.

Look at the details: the carefully formed gold twigs that form the perch, the beautiful way the swings attach to the earring hooks, the precise carving of the parrots!

I couldn’t find a turquoise pair currently for sale, but they’re just as lovely in aventurine.

Annette Ferdinandsen Design amethyst flower earrings in gold


And finally, we have these breathtaking Annette Ferdinandsen Design amethyst flower earrings in gold.

There’s something about these designs that screams spring, am I right? Not stereotypical cartoonish flower spring, but the sacred, elemental energy of plants and animals reemerging from winter to embrace new life once again. It’s the jewelry equivalent of the first warm breeze in early April, the sight of a daffodil emerging from the ground, a new leaf unfurling on a tree.

Now that I’m done waxing poetic (I can’t help myself) I want to know what you think! Does Annette Ferdinandsen Design’s work resonate with you, my darlings? Do you have a favorite from this selection?

Many of these designs were one of a kinds, but I’ve rounded up as many of them as I can find online (as well as some similar designs by the same artist). Find it all in my Annette Ferdinandsen Design ShopMy section.

This post contains affiliate links.

Annette Ferdinandsen Design carved amethyst flower earrings in gold
Gold snake rings by Annette Ferdinandsen Design, with diamonds and rubies
Gold snake rings by Annette Ferdinandsen Design, with diamonds and rubies
Frog prince ring by Annette Ferdinandsen Design, with malachite, gemstones, and pearl in gold.
Frog prince ring by Annette Ferdinandsen Design, with malachite and pearl in gold.
Frog and lily pad rings by Annette Ferdinandsen Design, with gemstones and pearls in gold.
Annette Ferdinandsen Design carved turquoise parrot on a branch earrings in gold
Annette Ferdinandsen Design carved turquoise parrot earrings in gold
Annette Ferdinandsen Design butterfly wing earrings with opals in gold
Annette Ferdinandsen Design blossom brach earrings with turquoise and mother of pearl in gold

What I’m Reading Vol. 128.

What I'm reading. Bookshelf photo by Ugur Akdemir on Unsplash

Hello darlings,

There’s finally a hint of spring in the air and I could not be happier about it!! I’m not a winter person (in like a big seasonal affective way) and feeling the sun on my face when I went for a walk this afternoon made me feel so much more optimistic about everything.

It’s a fun week in House DitL because my birthday is just a couple of days away! We’re keeping it low key but I’m looking forward to eating some of my favorite foods and taking some extra time to myself to celebrate having made it through another year.

I hope that you get a bit of that pre-spring hopeful feeling today, too, my darlings. Don’t let the bastards grind you down.

xoxo,
Becky

What I’m reading

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett: Bookshop.org | Amazon

Emily Wilde, a bookish Professor of Dryadology who is doing field research in a cold, unfriendly small town. She plans to keep her head down, gather evidence for her book, and hopefully make tenure at her university back home by observing some unusual local faeries.

The worldbuilding is enthralling: layered and complex and exquisitely planned out. It was absorbing from the first sentence but unfurled at a leisurely pace that invited me to read slower than usual and take everything in. I absolutely loved it and cannot wait to read the next in the series.

Highly recommended if you like a practical, no-nonsense heroine who prioritizes her passion for her vocation above social niceties. This book contains some romance, but it’s not a Romance – the love story is a very, very small part of the book.

His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire Series #1) by Naomi Novik: Bookshop.org | Amazon

This glorious fantasy series is a retelling of the Napoleonic wars with one key difference: in this universe, both sides fight with aerial corps of dragons. The main character is a former Navy Captain who accidentally bonded with a rare dragon and must now serve king and country by learning how to fight in a whole new way.

Spectacularly written and utterly absorbing; slow moving in a good way. I think the dragons are my favorite characters.

Want to see more fiction I’m loving? Click here.

Internets

Jewelry Industry Braces for Impact of Trump’s Trade War: a very helpful article about a complex situation.

US Postal Inspection Service Alert: Beware of ‘Diamond’ Ring ‘Brushing’ Scam. If you receive a ring you didn’t buy in the mail and it comes with a QR code, don’t scan it!

Fairmined vs Fairtrade Gold: What’s the Difference? – from Ethical Metalsmiths.

5 Engagement Ring Designers to Know in 2025, according to Only Natural Diamonds. Meet five designers with unique brand identities and an exceptional eye for natural diamonds.

Sotheby’s to offer Fabergé Animals from Castle Howard: The carvings will make their debut at Sotheby’s in May 2025, with the proceeds to going to the restoration of Castle Howard’s tapestry drawing room.

The Curse of the Stolen Amethyst. Is this gemstone responsible for more than a century of tragedy?

If you need a video break, here’s a 10 minute watch about the world’s most cursed gemstones.

Louis Vuitton High Jewellery Travels to 19th Century France. This new chapter, the Awakened Hands Awakened Minds high jewellery collection pays tribute to the evolution of savoir-faire and the great scientific advances of the 19th century, while highlighting Louis Vuitton’s fascination with extraordinary stones and precious metals.

Book images via UnSplash. This post contains affiliate links.

Transatlantic cable souvenir jewelry: a slice of history.

Transatlantic cable souvenir jewelry is an exceptionally niche subset of antique jewelry – and a particularly fascinating one!

I’m betting most of you haven’t seen one of these before…but don’t worry, I’m going to tell you allllllll about them.

Here are the examples of transatlantic cable souvenir jewelry we'll be discussing in this article

Transatlantic cable souvenir jewelry: a slice of history.

What even is transatlantic cable souvenir jewelry? To adequately answer this question, we need to talk about the history of the world’s first transatlantic cable.

For most of human existence, the only way to communicate across distance was to have a message delivered by hand. That’s why it was so revolutionary when the telegraph was invented in the early 1800’s: suddenly you could send messages all over the country!

But even this miraculous technology was limited by where you could lay a wire. No telegraphs could be sent across the vast Atlantic ocean.

In 1853, American Cyrus West Field began raising money for an ambitious project: to lay the world’s first transatlantic cable between New York City and London, England. The project faced many challenges, from finding ships and engineers for the project to figuring out how to build a cable durable enough to survive being laid across the ocean floor (see this excellent video for more details).

The first two attempts at a transatlantic cable failed, but on August 16, 1858, Queen Victoria and President James Buchanan used the completed cable to successfully exchange pleasantries from across the Atlantic ocean.

People were so excited by this groundbreaking feat of technological accomplishment that they wanted to celebrate in a time honored way: by buying souvenirs!

Tiffany & Co. advertised in the New York Times on August 21, 1858 that they purchased the entire stock of spare cable from the USS Niagara, a ship that helped lay the cable, “in order to place it within reach of all classes, and that every family in the United States may posses a specimen of this wonderful mechanical curiosity.”

Tiffany & Co. sold thousands of brass-bound cable samples as souvenir objects, but they also made silver dishes, walking canes with handles made from spare cable, scrimshaw tributes, snuff boxes with cable slices set into the lid – as well as wholesaling the cable to other manufacturers who then made their own products. You can see examples here, on this excellent website dedicated to the subject.

But of course, our focus is on transatlantic cable souvenir jewelry! Distinctive and extraordinarily rare, I have only ever seen a few examples still intact, and only ever online…at least until recently, when I had the good fortune to acquire a piece for my own collection (!!!!).

Let’s look at a few examples, including my own.

Rare transatlantic cable souviner pendant in yellow gold, from Velvet Box Society

Here’s a piece of transatlantic cable souvenir jewelry with a provenance as impressive as its lovely details: this pendant was reportedly a Gift from Queen Victoria to Isaac Toucey, Secretary of the Navy under President James Buchanan. Toucey was the person who actually received the first transatlantic telegraph sent by Queen Victoria in 1858.

As if that weren’t cool enough, the pendant is thicker than most and beautifully detailed, with an anchor shaped bale and a detailed hand-engraving of the U.S.S. Niagara (one of the ships that laid the cable) on the reverse side.

The best thing about this jaw-dropping treasure? It’s the only piece of transatlantic cable souvenir jewelry I can find that’s currently available for sale!! Find it at Velvet Box Society.

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