The New England Glass Work, founded in 1911, reorganized in 1938 to become Rice-Weiner & Company, a manufacturer of premium costume jewelry. In 1946 the founders split the firm, with Alvin and Robert Rice establishing Barclay Jewelry, Inc., and Alexander Weiner continuing to run Rice-Weiner. The company's head designer, Louis Mark, followed the Rices to Barclay, so Weiner hired a series of high-profile outside designers to generate continued interest in the company. The best known of these designers was Norman Bel Geddes.

Bel Geddes, famed for his utopian and futuristic designs for theater and industry, brought valuable name-recognition to Rice-Weiner. His jewelry was part of the Jeray line and embodied what he called "flow motion." "Yesterday's jewelry was splendid for yesterday's needs," Bel Geddes told the Hartford Courant in 1950. "Today's antique was yesterday's modern design. But with 'flow motion' in dress and figure, it was inevitable that flow motion in jewelry should develop—flexibility rather than stiffness." The overlapping arcs that make up these earrings convey a sense of motion that relates to Bel Geddes's comments. Pieces in the line were finished in gold or rhodium and were moderately priced. The importance of Bel Geddes's persona in the marketing of this line is evident in the "Design by Bel Geddes" stamp on the reverse of each clip.