Vintage jewellery is readily available from a vast market, whether through antique and vintage shops, assorted fairs, auction houses, and multiple internet marketplaces. There’s a broad audience of men and women, regardless of their position, with a penchant for vintage style.
Collecting these pieces is enjoyable but can be challenging due to the demand and paying attention for worn and possibly damaged pieces. Normal wear is expected considering the jewellery’s age, but damage can be a deal-breaker for consummate collectors.
In that vein, you must know precisely what to look for when shopping for items with reputable and quality dealers like those at Vintage Tom Antique Jewellery so you come away with a valuable addition to your collection.
How can you prepare when pursuing new vintage jewellery for your personal collection? Let’s learn a few tips.
The Search for Vintage Jewellery – What to Look For
The word “vintage” derives from “vendange,” a French term for wine. Today, “vintage” describes jewellery that traces back through history and has aged gracefully. These designs have withstood the test of time to be appreciated and beloved by a whole new audience.
Often vintage and antique are interchangeably used to identify jewellery pieces and refer to items that have aged to the point of being valuable in today’s market. When determining the difference between vintage and antique, you must recognize that anything 100 years old and over is antique.
Items between 50 and 100 years of age are vintage. When looking in 2025, you’ll search for jewellery from 1925 and 1975 for genuine vintage items.
Many of these pieces have been passed from one generation to the next with age and a design that tells a story of the time from which it originates, an elegant representation of days past.
Not only do you get beautiful items when collecting vintage jewellery but also have the opportunity to consider what was happening at that point in time. Compared to the mass-produced jewellery in today’s market, most vintage pieces were handcrafted and one-of-a-kind.
The priority is to become connected with a reliable and trusted vintage jewellery dealer with whom you can learn an item’s age, its construction, the materials, and the designer or manufacturer.
Visit The Closet Historian: Collecting Vintage Jewelry: Tips on Getting Started – for tips on getting started with a vintage jewellery collection.
Qualified professional dealers have extensive knowledge and expertise on the items they acquire and are transparent about these details with customers. These are the dealers you want to be associated with. What are the key factors to consider when pursuing vintage jewellery purchases? Follow these suggestions.
The condition
An inspection is critical when assessing the value of vintage jewellery. The front depicts the edges around the gem and how good the setting placement is. You want to pay attention for nicks, chips, or stone scuffs or if the enamel is compromised.
The back of the item will show evidence of alterations or repairs and discern the authenticity. You can determine how the item was made and if manufacturing followed the practices used for that period or if it was reproduced.
When buying at auction, you want to have access to the jewellery specialist’s report, which reveals the condition. Specialists take considerable time in appraising and grading jewellery to then resale the pieces.
Any flaws or defects, such as gem scratches, mount damages, or repairs or alterations, are noted in the report. Go here for a guide on vintage jewellery collecting.
Is it altered
Vintage jewellery are pieces with previous owners who may have altered the items, restored, resized, had them repaired, and gems unset to be polished. Over time, clasps can become worn and may be replaced.
The priority is that all work should be performed by a qualified jeweller with extensive knowledge and expertise in vintage and antique jewellery. Despite these alterations, it shouldn’t detract from the jewellery’s value.
Assay or hallmarks
The marks on individual pieces of jewellery essentially tell their story, such as their country of origin and dating the item. The manufacturer and retailer will also include marks, signatures and stamps.
However, it was not always a requirement for countries to hallmark or assay jewellery. Often on British jewellery, in particular, collectors will find only a single standard mark or possibly a maker’s mark since the legal requirement for placing hallmarks didn’t take effect until the early 1970s.
If there are no marks, this doesn’t mean the item is not vintage or antique, nor will it be of a lower standard.
Authenticity
Jewellery trends come and go, but, inevitably, popular styles come back, authentic pieces and reproductions to accommodate demand. However, most jewellery styles have deliberate copies that some try to pass off as period jewellery.
The best way to determine authenticity is to have items inspected by a specialist. These experts can spot nuances that reveal a copy as opposed to a genuine piece. Authentic jewellery is polished and well-finished, albeit worn as you would expect from a period piece.
Copies can be set with modern cut gems that were unavailable when authentic jewellery was made.
Final Thought
Vintage jewellery will always have a following. Some of the attraction lies in searching for authentic and favoured pieces from the era that entices you, the excitement of finding them, and the joy that comes when wearing the jewellery.
Unlike brand-new modern jewellery, vintage and antique pieces tell a story, has a history, and allow us to wallow in that nostalgia.