Antique rings and Vintage rings

Of all the types of antique and vintage jewellery available rings are possibly the most popular especially genuine antique and vintage rings made from gold or silver and those set with both precious and semi precious stones.

In general I draw a division between antique and vintage jewellery  where antique dates anything before circa 1920 and vintage between that time and the 1970s .  Although with the 1980s now becoming 30 years old I suspect that these will soon be vintage too.

Antique Rings:

In general the collector or investor can find  antique rings from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Now and then a genuine Georgian ring can be found but these are quite rare and expensive.

Antiques Avenue offers a selection of antique rings including those set with small gemstones such as diamonds and sapphires, semi precious stones including turquoises. There are also pearl and cameo set rings. Most of the antique rings we can find today are made of  gold. It is particularly nice to find and antique ring with a set of hallmarks so that we can date the ring accurately and tell easily what carat gold it is made of. Unfortunately many antique gold rings are not hallmarked as the laws did not require this at the time they were made.

Which antique rings should you look out for today? I suggest that you find one that really appeals to you and just wear it on special occasions not for every day wear. It seems such a shame to damage something that has survived the past 100 years or more. Popular colours in later Victorian rings were red garnets, blue turquoises and sapphires and white diamonds and pearls. There are also multi coloured gemstone rings to be found where the initial letters of the stones spell out a word such as Dearest or Regard.

A word of caution, antique rings tend to be on the small side which is great if you have slim fingers. If you are thinking about buying an antiuqe ring and having it re-sized I suggest that you ask before you buy if it is suitable for re-sizing. My normal advice to customers is that they will be fine for resizing one or two sizes up or down but seldom do I reccomend more as the setting of any stones could be disturbed.

Vintage Rings:

Wedding rings, engagement rings, cocktail rings, dress rings, eternity rings, signet rings: all of these can be found from anytime during the 1900s.  New materials for making rings were introduced and whilst gold is undeniably still the most frequent material found in 20th century rings there are also more rings made of silver and a few special platinum rings.  Unlike antique rings, I think that many vintage rings are suitable for every day wear and certainly many of them can be found a prices cheap enough not to worry to much about this.

Gold is now very expensive so how about looking at vintage silver rings? Art deco silver rings made of silver and set with multicoloured crystals or marcasites can be found for under £40. Scandinavian designer silver rings from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and very stylish or how about a sparkling cocktail ring made of nine carat gold and set with semi precious but still colourful gemstones. The choice is quite vase.

AntiquesAvenue is extending its selection of vintage jewellery in 2010 to include more antique rings and vintage rings . IN the meantime here is a small selection of what can be currently found in the shop.

 

antique ring coral

A wonderful antique ring made of gold ( tests as nine carat not hallmarked) and set with carved coral stones. The head of this ring measures about 2 cms long .
This is UK ring size O , USA size 7.25
Antique ring Victorian turquoise gold hair
Here is a very beautiful antique Victorian ring. This is made of gold which testsat about 18 carats but is not hallmarked. The top is decorated with turquoise stones and there is a plait of hair intwined in the shank. This ring would have been a love token or used as a Keep safe for a lock of lovers hair.

Age: Victorian Approx Size: UK size M.25, USA size 6.5
Approx Weight: 2.3 grams

 

gold eternity ring with hearts