Yesterday, a rather imperious elderly lady came into our store with husband in tow, and asked me to look at a yellow metal pierced cuff bracelet. She said “I just want to know what it is worth” (and of course, didn’t want to pay anything for the service). I began to explain that I needed […]
We just completed an estate appraisal for a client which included this nice looking white gold bracelet. During the take-in process, we noticed a missing stone and a broken hinge. And, somehow the bracelet just didn’t look quite right. When we turned the bracelet over, we immediately noticed some remnant parts that were out of […]
Ever so often in this business, we see something that makes us truly humble and amazed at the accomplishments of our fellow artisans. The Frog Boatman tells it all when you realize that this panel is less than an inch high. We recently had the privilege of working with this wonderful Japanese bracelet– we think […]
I recently had the pleasure of appraising this interesting watch. The design first charmed and then puzzled me. At first, the straight lines and geometric shapes convinced me it was pure Art Deco, 1925-1940. The “Curvex” shape seemed to confirm that— Gruen introduced the classic men’s Curvex style shaped to fit the wrist around 1929. […]
While Jim is our usual blogger and general font of wisdom, once in a while I’ll have some exciting (?) site news for everyone. Today we’ve got four new inventory items up for your perusal, including three from Jenny Sweaney, the hot new designer taking Riverside by storm.
One of the fascinating things about jewelry is how often it reflects history. We have a very interesting pin that shows just how much our world has changed in the past two centuries– just compare this pin with the item described in our previous Blog, 3-D Precious Portraits! This may be the oldest item in […]
Cameos are carvings of gem materials in which the subject carved is in positive relief from the base of the cameo, as opposed to Intaglios, where the subject is carved negatively (into the surface of the gem material). Cameos are more often seen in jewelry objects where the beauty of the piece is foremost, the […]
We recently followed a thread on the Orchid forum about “bloomed” gold. We have a beautiful example of bloomed gold in our estate department, a great Art Nouveau ring set with a very nice precious coral cameo and diamonds.
We recently acquired this striking coral cameo brooch, depicting Diana, the Roman goddess of the Moon- you can see the crescent moon in her hair. Diana was synonymous with Artemis of the Greek pantheon. The style of the brooch is similar to other Mid Victorian “Etruscan Revival” pieces we have seen, with very delicate twisted […]
