Care, Condition & Authenticity 

How do I look after my jewellery?

There are a few things you can do to help keep your jewellery in peak condition: 

•   Avoid spraying perfume and applying creams and lotions directly to your jewellery, I know no-one moisturisers there jewellery, more wiping hands before you handle it, no applying too much to the areas the jewellery sits and not spraying perfume near the metals. 

•   Always remove your jewellery before showering, exercising and swimming. Water (when not dried off properly), perspiration and chlorine are not friends of costume jewellery. 

•   When you remove your jewellery give it a wipe with a microfibre cloth just to take off the moisture and dirt of the day before you store it. 

•   Keep your jewellery stored away from extreme temperatures, humidity and direct sunlight - so not in a plastic box on a windowsill. For best practice store each piece separately in a pouch, within a soft lined air tight container in a cool, dry place. Adding one of those little silica packs into your jewellery box is a great way to absorb any moisture. 

Any tips on cleaning?

Use a soft, dry cotton or microfibre cloth to gently rub the surface of your jewellery and restore its shine. A specialist jewellery cleaning cloth is worth the small investment in the long run. 

Are your pieces in good condition?

It’s important to remember all these pieces have history, they have had a life before and that life sometimes shows in patina, minor surface wear or subtle oxidisation. With that said all items are in good, wearable vintage condition. Where there is any noticeable imperfections we will state that in the description. 

We clean every piece when we receive it and sanitise it before it gets sent to you.

How do you know what metal it is?

That’s a good question! The base is usually brass or copper and is then plated, washed, or flashed with gold of a fineness of around 10ct. 

When gold is plated onto sterling silver, the result is known as vermeil and is usually marked with a 325 stamp. For gold pieces they are marked with 925. Sometimes items are not stamped, but if they are stated as real gold/silver they will have been tested and confirmed as such. 

If you suffer from metal related allergies, sadly it’s probably best to avoid vintage pieces unless they are 925 or on occasion 325 stamped. it’s really hard to say for sure what base metal has been used, especially on some of the pre 70’s pieces. If you just have to have a piece then you could try something like ProtectaClear or Jewellery Shield. 

How do you identify the date of pieces?

With great difficulty sometimes. on occasion pieces are helpfully stamped with a date mark or the production run of that particular designer or maker falls between a specific date. Other times you have to use the many clues that pieces display to date them. I look at things like styling, clasps, link types and themes and sometimes I use reference books or the wisdom of vintage jewellery experts to help me. 

How do you authenticate designer pieces?

I only sell vintage designer pieces sourced from reputable dealers and or pieces that are stamped. When I suspect a piece may be designer (there are lots of factory samples that would have been made by the design house, but not stamped) then it will be made clear in the description.