Vintage Charms – an introduction

Vintage Charms are back

Charms bracelets are back in fashion! Very trendy in the 1960s and 1970s, they faded from popularity for over 20 years but are back in a big way. Old or new, ready made or lovingly assembled to reflect the owners personality, silver, gold, glass, opening, moving, gem studded, traditional and Italian charms – the variety seems endless. When selecting your charm bracelet you have a choice of buying one with charms ready attached or purchasing a suitable bracelet and adding your own charms or even getting one with some charms already attached and still having room for a few of your own.

vintage charm bracelet

What is a Charm? These are decorative little items of jewellery, often figural in shape. In the past charms have been associated with Good Luck and have been given as Love Tokens. Normally charms are made of metal, silver being the most commonly seen. Gold charms have increase in price recently along with the rising price of gold. Base metal or plastic charms are the budget option however these will probably not wear as well as silver and so silver better buy for those wanting to actually wear their charm bracelet. Please note that most English silver charms do not carry hallmarks. British hallmarking law does not require individual silver items weighing less than 7.8 grams to be hallmarked and it would be very unusual for a silver charm to even approach this weight. Vintage English silver charms will almost certainly be made of .925 grade sterling silver, theoretically it is possible for them to be of a higher grade but English silver would normally adhere to this standard.

It is usual for a silver charm bracelet to fasten with a heart shaped padlock; this padlock snaps shut and does not use a key despite being fashioned with a key hole. Often the bracelet will also have and attached safety chain. If you look carefully there is often ( but not always) an English silver hallmark to be found on the padlock, by reference to a silver hallmarks book it is possible to translate the hallmarks and find the date when the bracelet was made. Other marks which can be found on charms include: Silver, sil and manufacturer’s markings such as the highly sought after Nuvo charms  and Chim charms.

I originally published this article on e-zine and thought it worth repeating here.