The Journal · Topic

Jewelry Eras & History

Georgian to Retro, 1714 to the 1940s — how to recognise each era by its metals, cuts, settings and motifs, and what genuinely survives from it.

Signet Rings: From Seal to Style

The signet ring is the oldest ring with a job. It was a signature, and the test of a real one is...

The cocktail ring was designed to be seen holding a glass you were not legally allowed to hold. Where the style came...

The past, present and future story is 1990s advertising, not history. Three-stone rings are far older and far more interesting than that...

Most antique rings carry no usable hallmark. Dating them is a matter of reading construction: the cut of the stones, how the...

When platinum was requisitioned for the war effort, jewelers turned to gold and made it loud. Retro jewelry is the most undervalued...

For forty years the Victorians wore their grief in public, and built an entire industry to do it. How to identify jet...

A locket is the only jewelry designed to hold a secret. How to date one by its construction, what the different styles...

A cluster ring is not a halo. It is a group of stones designed to read as one jewel — the oldest...

Art Nouveau lasted barely twenty years and broke the rule that jewelry should be valued by its stones. Enamel, horn, glass —...