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14k White Gold Diamond
$550.00
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| Fashion Jewelry |
Shopping for costume, or fashion, jewelry is an entirely different animal
from shopping for fine jewelry. You often don’t need to pay much attention
to gemstone authenticity, metal stamping, and the like. On the other hand,
there’s an entire market of avid collectors of fashion jewelry, especially vintage
and designer jewelry, giving this category its own set of rules.
There are several types of fashion jewelry. The main kinds include the following:
■ Vintage. Signed, period costume jewelry, such as the brooch shown
in Figure 4.13, is a hot collector’s item, and can in some cases fetch
prices comparable to fine jewelry.
Figure 4.13
Vintage costume jewelry is
sometimes as competitive as
fine estate jewelry, depending
on the period and designer.
■ Designer. Design houses such as Erwin Pearl create designs that
mimic fashionable styles, using crystals and glass instead of gemstones.
■ Artisan. Often using beautiful beads, these hand-crafted designs offer
unique styles different from anything else you’ll see in stores.
■ Replicas. Some companies specialize in designing jewelry that looks
exactly like a famous piece, such as a cultured pearl necklace worn by
Jackie Kennedy.
Assessing Quality
There are no 4Cs of costume jewelry—quality and price tend to be based
on, among other factors, the piece’s craftsmanship and heritage. Here are a
few points to consider when assessing quality of a fashion piece:
■ Craftsmanship. A good piece of costume jewelry should be as lovingly
crafted as fine jewelry, with earring posts and brooch backs that don’t
snap off, good polish, detailed filigree or carvings, and no visible glue
or crooked edges that show the clumsiness of the work. Study the
picture of the piece carefully, and if necessary, ask the seller to send
more close-ups.
■ Likeness to fine jewelry. This factor is important only if it’s what
you’re going for. If you’re seeking a pair of earrings that will fool your
friends into believing you purchased real diamonds, look for auctions
selling cubic zirconia or moissanite studs rather than rhinestone.
E-mail the seller about how closely the stones resemble the real thing,
and ask about getting your money back if you’re not satisfied.
■ Materials. Sometimes manufacturers will blend semiprecious stones
or precious metals with artificial materials. Fine materials increase the
value of the piece.
■ Designer name. Especially in vintage costume collecting, pieces
signed by certain designers are more coveted. Names you’ll see
include Weiss, Boucher, Miriam Haskell, Trifari, Hollycraft, Bogoff,
and Eisenberg, among others.
■ Age and design period. Vintage costume jewelry follows the same
periods as fine estate jewelry, and the same popular periods are just
as highly valued.
83
The Ins and Outs of Jewelry Buying Chapter 4
■ Uniqueness. If the piece is one-of-a-kind (or even 100-of-a-kind), its
value will be much higher than if there are hundreds of thousands of
them around the world. That’s why determining whether the piece is
original or a reproduction is very important.
Red Flags
Authenticity is the primary red flag, especially when it comes to vintage,
artisan, or designer costume jewelry. Is the piece what the seller says it is, and
how rare or unique is it? Especially with vintage costume jewelry, knockoffs
are prevalent, and it’s harder to spot them because a signature on a piece is
less standardized than, say, a hallmark stamp on a piece of fine jewelry. Fortunately,
there are tons of books on assessing the authenticity of vintage costume
jewelry (refer to Chapter 2, “Doing Your Homework,” for a partial list).
Additionally, the Jewelry Collecting online forum on Delphi Forums (http://
forums.delphiforums.com/jewelcol) features participants trading photographs
of much-circulated fakes so they can spot potential problems. |
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