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09/08/08

This article focuses on the craftsmanship of jewelry so as to encourage you to look more closely at your pieces for the evidence of fine skills and design. If you have a knowledge of the skills used to make the jewelry it will lead you to a greater appreciation of its beauty and aid you in dating Antique Jewelry
History - The Craftsmanship of Victorian Jewelry - Part 1

Early Catches and Hinges

Let's start with Catches and Hinges. Sometimes you can detect the age of a piece by the catch/hinge. However, keep in mind that over the years these may have been replaced, leaving you to find other ways of dating your piece. The "C" catch is the earliest type and following that in about 1895 a safety type catch was used for a brief period of time. Sort of like the third catch you see from the right in the picture. Around the 1920's the present day type safety catch caught on even though a safety catch had been used by some since about 1912. The Trombone clasp is primarily found on European jewelry from the 1940's though it was very popular back in the 1890's as well. The clasp alone will not date a piece as you will see. As far as the hinges go... there are basically two types that are prominent in costume jewelry - the ball hinge (c 1890), which has variations; with one type you grip the pin by tightening the sides of the hinge as in the second example from the right in the picture shown. Another note: Better quality jewelry brooches usually had a small loop at the back for attaching a safety chain. On many pins I've come across, there has been the loop or even an O ring... but the safety chain was missing. These often broke over the years and weren't replaced. The tube hinge as shown in the photo is the earlier hinge - pre 1890's.

Holloware Victorian BroochBrooches during the Victorian era were often formed as a hollow structure known as holloware. This was done partly to reduce the cost but also to reduce the weight - heavy brooches cause damage to delicate fabrics and tend to sag on the material. When you feel a piece of holloware you are aware of it's light weight, however, you might also notice the presence of tiny breather holes in the back - this allowed soldering to be carried out when the when the piece was being made. The problem with holloware is that is was very often made using very thin metal so it was easily dented and crushed. Very few pieces survived in mint condition. Also there was a tendency for the metal to tear around the stress points of the hinge and latch. This type of damage is difficult to repair

Tearing around the stress points
Note stress points on the back of the brooch.
Repoussé
Repoussé is a method of imparting a raised design or pattern to a flat sheet of metal by punching the forms in from the back. The metal is supported on a block of pitch (sometimes made of wood) which provides a cushion for the forming of areas which have to be raised by the carefully using a series of punches with rounded tips. Since not all of the detailed work can be done this way the metal is turned over and the finer details of the design are punched in from the front, once again with the pitch supporting the metal. The use of steel punches this way is called Chasing. Repoussé is a time consuming task and was mostly used on the larger, more valuable pieces in Western Jewelry.

2 sought in jewelry-store robbery (Orlando Sentinel)
Police are searching for two people who broke into a jewelry story in Palm Bay early Friday morning, according to reports.

Jewelry, items taken during showings of homes (Pasadena Star-News)
PASADENA - This wasn't what Realtors meant by "open house." While posing as potential home buyers, thieves made off with more than $140,000 in jewelry and other valuables

The Follow-up File: Jewelry store still a gem for its remaining partners (The San Luis Obispo Tribune)
Name: Kelly Maddalena Job: Co-owner Business: Le Crème, a San Luis Obispo jewelry and gift store What she said then: In September 2006, The Tribune interviewed Kelly Maddalena about Le Crème.

Bunch of beads: New store allows customers to make their own jewelry (The Carrollton Leader)
Walking into The Artful Bead can be a bit overwhelming for a first time jewelry maker. Thousands of beads are neatly displayed throughout the store along with some magazines to help the jewelry maker who may be experiencing designer's block.

Thailand's secrets in jewelry industry bared (Sun Star)
WHAT are the secrets of Thailand's fine jewelry industry that it now shines in the world, hauling in for that country a hefty $3 billion in cash each year?

Make Your Own Jewelry Cleaner [Household] (Lifehacker)
Jewelry cleaner works great for restoring luster to your precious-metal accessories, and it can even take that awful, funky metal-gone-bad smell off of not-quite-precious objects. But paying for the...

Palm Bay search continues for jewelry bandits (Florida Today)
Palm Bay police this morning are continuing the search for two people caught on surveillance video burglarizing a jewelry store early Friday.

Two men rob Hempstead jewelry store (Newsday)
Two men pretending to be customers robbed a Hempstead jewelry store Friday afternoon, police said.

ROBBERY: Three hold up jewelry store (York Daily Record)
Three men robbed a jewelry store inside the West Manchester Mall on Friday. West Manchester Township Police said that, at 5:36 p.

McCain, Obama: different styles, similar jewelry (Republican-American)
NEW YORK — Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama are at the opposite ends of the style spectrum. McCain is very proper in brightly colored dresses with matching jackets; Obama is more dramatic in bell sleeves with an occasional flash of cleavage.

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