A scale reads the same number whether a brooch was made in 1885 or last year. The era does not weigh anything — and on estate jewelry it is often the largest part of the value. The good news is that a piece usually tells you its own age, if you turn it over and know what you are looking at.
Why the era changes the number
Weight and karat set a floor. What sits on top of that floor is everything the scale cannot see: who made it, when it was made, how it was made, and what is set into it. Signed, antique and gem-set pieces are valued on the resale market, and only items genuinely worth more as metal are valued at melt — and the written offer says plainly which is which.
That is why identifying an era matters before you sell anything. A late Victorian brooch and a modern brooch of the same weight are not the same transaction, and the difference is decided long before anyone reaches for a scale. If your piece turns out to be period, it belongs on the estate side of the business, not the metal side.
The eras at a glance
Dates overlap, styles were revived, and a jeweler in a small town went on making what he had always made for years after fashion moved on. Treat these as ranges, not verdicts.
| Era | Roughly | What it usually looks like | Usual metals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgian | 1714–1837 | Hand-made throughout, closed backs, foil behind the stones, rose and early cushion cuts. Genuinely scarce. | High-karat gold, silver over gold |
| Victorian | 1837–1901 | Three moods across sixty years: romantic and sentimental early, heavy and dark in the mourning years, lighter and star-and-crescent late. Lockets, snakes, seed pearls, jet, hair work. | Yellow gold, silver-topped gold, gold-filled |
| Art Nouveau | 1890–1910 | Curved, organic lines — irises, dragonflies, faces and vines. Enamel, especially plique-à-jour, often matters more than the stones. | Yellow gold, silver |
| Edwardian | 1901–1915 | White, light and lacy. Pierced filigree, garland bows and swags, milgrain edges, diamonds and natural pearls. | Platinum, platinum on gold |
| Art Deco | 1920–1935 | Geometry and contrast: straight lines, stepped shoulders, calibré-cut colored stones set flush against white diamonds, baguettes, Egyptian and Asian motifs. | Platinum, early white gold |
| Retro | 1940–1950 | Big, bold and warm — ribbons, bows, scrolls and tank-track bracelets. Large volumes of gold with modest stones, often synthetic rubies. | Rose and yellow gold, palladium |
| Mid-century | 1950–1969 | Back to white diamonds and sprays: floral clusters, textured and woven gold, cocktail rings, the modern round brilliant everywhere. | Yellow and white gold, platinum |
Revivals muddy all of this — the Victorians revived Renaissance and Egyptian styles, the 1970s revived Deco. Construction dates a piece more reliably than styling does.
Four clues, in the order worth checking
- 1Turn it overThe front is fashion and can be copied in any decade. The back is construction — how the piece was joined, finished and fitted — and that is much harder to fake. Nearly every clue below lives on the back or inside the shank.
- 2Read the marksInside a ring shank, on the clasp tongue, on the pin stem, on the rim of a locket. Karat numbers, PLAT or 950, STERLING or 925, a maker’s mark, a patent number, national assay marks. Photograph them under a loupe or a close-focusing phone rather than deciding by eye what a worn mark says.
- 3Look at how the stones are cutCutting styles moved with the technology available. An old cut in an old setting is one of the strongest signs a piece is what it appears to be — and one of the first things a re-set piece loses.
- 4Look at the findingsClasps, hinges, catches and earring fittings are the plumbing of a piece. They changed on a rough timeline, they are rarely faked, and when they do not match the rest of the piece it usually means a repair or a conversion.
- 5Look for agreement, then stopOne clue proves nothing; two or three pointing at the same decade usually settle it. Photograph the marks, the back and the stones, and let someone who handles period jewelry every week confirm it before you sell.
What the stone cuts tell you
Rose cut
Flat bottom, domed top of triangular facets, no pavilion. Common from the Georgian period through the Victorian years, and back in fashion today.
Old mine cut
Squarish cushion outline, high crown, small table, a flat facet at the point. Cut by hand and by eye — no two match exactly. Georgian and Victorian.
Old European cut
Round outline with the same high crown and open point. Roughly late Victorian through the Deco years, and the standard stone in an Edwardian ring.
Transitional and modern brilliant
Larger table, shallower crown, tiny or no visible point. The modern proportions took hold from the 1920s onward and dominate anything post-war.
Calibré and baguette
Small stones cut to fit a specific channel, edge to edge. Expensive hand work and a strong Art Deco signal.
Synthetic rubies and sapphires
Widely used from the early twentieth century, and typical of Retro pieces. Their presence dates a piece rather than condemning it.
Findings, clasps and fittings
| What you see | What it usually suggests |
|---|---|
| Brooch pin longer than the frame, simple C-shaped hook | Generally nineteenth century, before sprung safety catches became standard |
| Tube hinge on the pin | Older construction; later hinges are typically a small riveted plate |
| Trombone catch (pull-out tube) | Late nineteenth to early twentieth century, more often European |
| Rotating safety catch | Twentieth century; increasingly standard from around the 1910s |
| Screw-back earrings | Non-pierced fittings from the turn of the century onward |
| Clip-on earrings | From the 1930s, and everywhere by mid-century |
| Posts for pierced ears | Either much older, or from the 1960s onward when piercing returned |
| Screw-in threaded post | Later twentieth century, often on better modern pieces |
Fittings get replaced. A modern catch on a Victorian brooch means a repair, not a fake — the rest of the construction still dates the piece.
The metal dates it too
Silver over gold. Before white metals could be worked easily, diamonds were set in silver backed by gold, so the metal would not yellow the stones. If the front is dark silver and the back is warm gold, you are usually looking at something Victorian or older.
Platinum. Practical for jewelry from around the turn of the twentieth century, once torches could reach its melting point. Fine pierced work in white metal marked PLAT, PLATINUM, 950 or IRIDPLAT points at Edwardian or Deco.
White gold. Came in during the 1920s as a cheaper substitute for platinum. White gold in a piece that otherwise looks Edwardian usually means it is later than it looks.
Rose and yellow gold in quantity. A hallmark of the Retro years, when platinum was reserved for war use and designers answered with volume and warm color instead.
Conversions are everywhere, and they are not damage. Victorian brooches became pendants, earrings became rings, long chains were cut into bracelets. A piece whose clues disagree has usually lived a longer life than one whose clues line up — worth knowing, worth mentioning, and priced accordingly.
Before you decide anything, do not “improve” the piece.
Do not polish it — buffing rounds the crisp edges of hand work, thins the metal and can erase a hallmark, and the darkened recesses of an antique are patina, not dirt. Do not run it through an ultrasonic cleaner, which can damage pearls, opals and emeralds and shake worn settings loose. Do not replace an original clasp, recut an old stone, or have a period piece “modernized”. And do not take anything apart to see what is underneath — the pieces that are worth the most are the ones nobody got around to updating.
Not sure what you have? Send a photo of the front, the back and any marks — that is usually enough to place it.
Ask on WhatsAppHow a period piece is handled here
Every piece is weighed and its karat confirmed by testing, so the metal floor is never a guess. Then it is looked at as a piece rather than as metal: era, maker, stones, condition and originality. Signed, antique and gem-set pieces are valued on the resale market, and the written offer shows the metal value and any brand or gemstone premium separately, so you can see which part of the number came from the scale and which part came from the piece itself.
Nothing is melted, altered, dismantled or sold until you accept in writing. If a piece is worth more whole than it is worth as metal, that is what the offer will say — and the best of what we buy goes into our own collection rather than a crucible. Decline, and the same pieces come back to you free and fully insured.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between antique, vintage and estate jewelry?
The trade generally calls a piece antique once it is about a hundred years old, and vintage somewhere from roughly twenty or thirty years old upward. Estate means something different again: it simply means previously owned, whatever its age. A ring made last year and worn twice is estate jewelry. Age on its own does not create value — era, maker, stones and condition do.
Does a piece have to be signed to be worth more than its gold?
No. A signature helps, and a well-known name can multiply a piece far past its metal. But plenty of unsigned period jewelry sells well above melt on the strength of its era, its stones and the hand work in it — hand-fabrication, fine pavé, enamel and calibrated stones represent bench hours no metal price pays for. Signed, antique and gem-set pieces are valued on the resale market; only items genuinely worth more as metal are valued at melt, and we tell you which is which.
Should I clean or polish an antique piece before selling it?
No. Polishing softens the crisp edges of hand work, thins the metal and can wipe out a hallmark, and buffing away the darkened recesses of an antique removes the patina that collectors pay for. Original clasps, boxes, papers and honest patina all add value, and a careful unpolished antique beats a piece that has been over-restored. Ultrasonic cleaners are worse: they can damage pearls, opals and emeralds, and can shake loose stones out of worn settings.
My ring has an old-cut diamond. Is it worth less than a modern one?
Not necessarily, and it is usually a mistake to have one recut. Old mine and old European cuts are valued as period stones in their own right, and an original old cut in an original setting is part of what makes a period piece desirable. Recutting to modern proportions loses weight and turns a period stone into an ordinary one. Every stone is assessed on its own merits, whatever its cut and whether or not it has a report.
Does a repair or a replaced clasp ruin the value?
Rarely. Most period pieces that have been worn for a century have been repaired at some point, and a sound old repair is normal. It matters most on high-value collector pieces, where original findings and unaltered construction command a premium. Tell us what you know about any repair or conversion rather than hiding it — it is part of the piece’s history, and it is better priced in than discovered later.
Do you buy antique pieces that are broken or missing stones?
Yes. Broken and damaged pieces still hold their full metal and stone value, and a signed or antique piece can still be worth well beyond its metal even when it needs work. Send it as it is — do not attempt a repair first, and do not throw away detached parts or loose stones, which travel best in a small sealed bag inside the same package.