Archive for Antique Brooches

Mar

Tell Vintage Jewellery from Antique Jewellery by the hinge

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1. Indentify vintage jewellery, antique jewellery and new jewelry by looking at the hinges.

Hinges are most often found on brooches rather than any other form of jewellery. By just looking at the hinge it is often possible to date a brooch broadly into the 1800s ( Georgian and Victorian) vs the 1900s ( Edwardian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, onwards). There are two important types of hinge to consider on vintage and antique brooches;
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Categories : Antique Jewellery, Jewellery, Vintage Jewellery, vintage brooch

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Jan

Amethyst , Amethyst coloured, Amethyst Style

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Antique dealers and auctioneers have a special ( an completely legal ) way of describing items when they are selling them to make them appear better than they really are. I am going to use three antique brooches to help show you what I mean.

This brooch below I am describing as being set with an amethyst. It means just that the stone is a real amethyst:

Amethyst Brooch

Here is Victorian Brooch with “Amethyst coloured stones”. This means they could be made of glass or an other imitation, they might be real ( they are not in this case). All I am describing here is the colour:

Amethyst coloured stones

This one I called “Faux Amethyst”. Faux is the French work for false or fake. This is a glass stone in amethyst colour:

Faux Amethyst

Other words to look out for when used in conjunction with the main word are Style, Type and Fashion. Look carefully at the next auction catalogue or internet site you read and you will spot this type of description quite frequently, its quite legitimate to use these terms and I do so myself . There must be many more similar words as well – can you think of any?

Categories : Trading Antiques, vintage brooch

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Dec

The Victorian Nanny Pin Brooch

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Here is a very strange and rare type of brooch – The Nanny pin.

Here is a rare brooch – its only the third one of these I’ve had in stock in the last 15 years. This is known as a Nanny pin brooch. It dates from the Edwardian era ( possibly late victorian) and is set with “Goldstone” which glitters wonderfully.

The reason it is know as a “Nanny pin ” is that one end unscrews Inside the Nanny would keep a needle and cotton ready for sewing up her little charges clothes if they got torn whilst they were out. How quaint.
This antique brooch measures 5 cms long

Goldstone is acutally a form of glass rather than a natural gemstone. It has been made with tiny copper inclusions which glitter and look like flecks of gold.