‘Vintage’ is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the world of jewellery. It tends to denote quality and craftsmanship – you might think of it as similar to the word ‘antique’.
To qualify as ‘vintage’, something needs to have lasted for awhile, and yet be of a quality high enough to still be valuable. Pieces older than a century tend to be called ‘antique’, while everything newer than that falls under the ‘vintage’ umbrella. Could you have vintage jewellery?


When you’re looking through your collection, you might stumble across a piece that strikes you as potentially vintage, or even antique. You might even have already identified such an item, and be considering a trip to your local pawnbroker.
Let’s take a look at how we might determine whether an item is vintage, and how we might care for such an item after we’ve made this determination.
How to date your vintage jewellery


Over the course of jewellery-making history, many styles and fads have come and gone. If you’re familiar with these, then you might stand a better chance of telling which category your particular item falls into.
You might also look at the methods which have gone into the creation of the item. If the item has been cut with a machine, then you can say with certainty that it was made in the 20th century or later.
Certain materials came in and out of fashion at certain times, too. If you’re dealing with an obscure substance that you can’t quite put your finger on, then the chances are good that it was brought to the market at a specific time. For example, palladium came into fashion in the 1930s.
How to clean your vintage jewellery


Certain materials will tarnish, which makes it necessary to handle them with extreme care. Some caution is warranted, however, whatever sort of item you’re cleaning. The precise methods you use should take into account the material you’re cleaning. For example, silver will tarnish, while gold won’t; baking soda might help you to clean the former, but it may damage the latter.
Don’t attempt to clean gemstones yourself; you risk dislodging the stone and ruining the item. Call an expert, instead.
How to store your vintage jewellery


While it would be nice if you could simply wear your jewellery all the time, there are some instances where it’s appropriate to take it off. If you’re cleaning, cooking, or exercising, then you might take off the item. Store it in a jewellery box, on top of a soft piece of cloth, in a space where the temperature is kept fairly constant.
Images courtesy of unsplash.com and pexels.com
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