Fashion & Shopping

If you ever decide to take a look at vintage jewelry, you had better be very careful, it doesn’t take more than a couple of good finds, and you’re hooked for life.

As far as how vintage jewelry is defined, it’s disputed among those in the industry, but in general, if it’s over 25 years old, a piece of jewelry is considered vintage. Of course the antique guidelines still remain in effect, in that if it’s over 100 years old, a piece of jewelry is still considered an antique, even if it’s also called vintage.

Vintage jewelry also involves a number of different periods in history, which are the Georgian period, and following the Georgian was the Victorian periods (early, mid and late; 1837 – 1900), then the Arts and Crafts (1894-1923), Art Nouveau (1895-1915), Edwardian (1901-1910), Art Deco (1920-1935), and Retro (1940s).

Some of the more popular vintage jewelry types are vintage wedding jewelry, Christmas jewelry, rings, cross-collectibles like Avon, earrings and rhinestones.

Of course there are a lot more than that, but these are very popular, and it would take a book to talk about the enormous variety you can find, discover and collect.

Not only is it fun, educational and entertaining to collect vintage jewelry, but it can be very profitable too, once you understand how things are priced,the quality to look for, and the demand for periods and themes.

Now if you go that route, you might as well surrender to your passion and give up. It’s like an announced gold rush, once you get the fever you’re hooked for life.

I hope I’ve instilled in you a little curiosity and fun warning, as collecting, trading and selling vintage jewelry gets in your blood, and once it is, there’s no escaping it, and you’ll be going on jewelry hunts, and thinking about going on jewelry hunts, all your waking hours.

But come to think of it, that’s not so bad is it?