The Ultimate Guide To Buying Vintage Jewelry
CHARLIE BOYD speaks to a special cohort of antique-jewelry experts to share how industry insiders curate vintage and vintage-inspired jewelry collections for NET-A-PORTER
The definition of ‘vintage’ largely depends on who you ask. Many of us recall wearing a tattoo choker or chandelier earrings like it was yesterday, but now, ’90s designs are trickling into vintage territory, or, if you’re a stickler for nuance, are being branded ‘neo-vintage’ at the very least. Vintage jewelry, whichever era you look at, has always appealed to those who weren’t around the first time it was ‘cool’. Coupled with today’s fine-jewelry customer being better dedicated to a circular economy, along with the thrill of the chase involved in hunting down a one-of-a-kind piece, it’s no surprise that vintage jewelry and timepieces are more desirable than ever before.
“There is magic in buying something from the past that comes with history and stories attached to it,” says Susan Caplan, founder of her eponymous, luxury vintage-jewelry business. Caplan’s calling to work with vintage jewelry was almost inevitable: her parents were avid antique collectors, her mother dabbled in buying and selling pieces at Bermondsey Antiques Market and had a jewelry box full of sparkling pieces that Caplan would pore over as a young girl. Having also grown up in a home designed by architect Walter Segal – expertly curated to include pieces by Eames, Hille and Robin Day – the writing was on the wall from an early age.
“One of the first vintage pieces I found was an intricately detailed Georgian pendant with seed pearls – it was so special that it’s still in the family today,” says Caplan, who launched her London-based brand in 2008. Few know quality vintage design better than Caplan, who is renowned for her eye for detail. “We always encourage our consumer to start with a piece that has caught their initial attention, but, to ensure we are curating collections of the highest quality, we follow our three Cs: credibility, craftsmanship and condition,” she explains. “‘Credibility’ is ensuring authenticity by establishing if the piece is original. ‘Craftsmanship’ is ensuring that the design was correctly executed for that period by reviewing key components such as its weight. ‘Condition’ is understanding if the piece is in its original condition or if there have been any repairs.”
“Finding the treasure that you’ve been coveting is so rewarding and makes the piece feel that much more precious when you wear it. It’s the hunt and the find that makes vintage jewelry so satisfying
”Jenna Grosfeld
There is also a fourth ‘C’ that’s relevant to the modern vintage customer: making a conscious choice. “The most important benefit of vintage jewelry is the environmental impact,” says Caplan. “As we focus on reducing our carbon footprint, re-using materials that are already in existence goes a long way to driving a much-needed circular economy,” she adds. Similarly, ex-Christie’s specialist and Wind Vintage founder Eric Wind hunts the globe for exceptional vintage watches rather than chasing newly released models, while also providing an advisory service to top vintage-watch collectors around the world. With a capsule collection of vintage treasures curated by Wind soon available at NET-A-PORTER in the US, the needle-in-a-haystack hunt for the perfect piece (hello, Rolex ‘Air-King’ or Rolex ‘Date’) will be simplified.
There is undoubtedly an addictive quality to vintage jewelry, too, and it has inspired several collectors to launch their own lines of vintage-inspired pieces, borrowing design codes from bygone eras and weaving them into contemporary collections. “I love the way that vintage jewelry tells a story,” says Jenna Grosfeld, who founded her Los Angeles-based brand Jenna Blake in 2005 and has been an avid collector of vintage jewels for 25 years. “It amazes me how one small piece of jewelry can act as an artifact of time. It also says, ‘I’m not scared to be different,’” adds Grosfeld, who has borrowed design codes from art-deco, mid-century and French ’40s pieces to inspire her creations.
For Jennifer Koche, founder of Brooklyn-based brand Storrow, it is the latter part of the 19th century that most captures her imagination. “I am particularly drawn to the use of gemstone and enameling that was prevalent during the Victorian era, as well as the romantic and feminine aesthetic I’ve come across at antique and vintage shows [over the years],” says Koche. Focusing on hearts, birds and interchangeable gem-set medals, Storrow allows the wearer to curate collections of charms with the same level of craftsmanship and attention to detail found in antique pieces, rendering them heirloom-worthy. “I wanted to recreate the joy of the pieces found and the thrill of the hunt, albeit with less work for the Storrow customer,” she explains.
Unsure where to start your search? “I always tell people to buy with their heart and create their own genuine path while collecting,” advises Grosfeld. “Finding the treasure that you’ve been coveting is so rewarding and makes the piece feel that much more precious when you wear it. It’s the hunt and the find that makes vintage jewelry so satisfying.”
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