Glossary

A

Aigrette

A hair ornament in the form of a feather or spray, often set en tremblant so it quivered as the wearer moved. Eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Alloy

Any mixture of metals. Pure gold is too soft to hold a stone, so it is alloyed with copper, silver, zinc or palladium, which is what gives yellow, rose and white gold their colours.

Assay

The test that establishes how much precious metal an alloy actually contains. An assay office is the body licensed to perform it and strike the resulting mark. See reading hallmarks.

B

Baguette

A long rectangular step cut, introduced in the 1920s and inseparable from Art Deco design, where it was used to draw straight lines in stone.

Bail

The loop at the top of a pendant that the chain passes through. A bail that does not match the pendant in colour or wear is a sign of conversion.

Base metal

Any non-precious metal: brass, copper, nickel, steel. Not a synonym for worthless; a great deal of good nineteenth century jewelry is base metal by design.

Bezel

A rim of metal that surrounds and holds a stone. The oldest setting method there is, and the most secure.

Bloomed gold

A matte, slightly frosted gold surface produced by an acid dip, popular in the 1860s to 1880s. Polishing it away destroys a datable feature and a good deal of value.

Bright cut

Engraving where the graver leaves a facetted, mirror-bright cut rather than a plain line, so the metal itself sparkles. Common on Georgian and Edwardian work.

Britannia standard

Silver of 958 parts per thousand, higher than sterling. Compulsory in Britain from 1697 to 1720 and optional since, marked with a seated figure of Britannia.

C

Cabochon

A stone polished into a dome rather than faceted. The only way to finish opaque and translucent stones, and the standard treatment for garnet, moonstone and turquoise.

Calibre cut

Small stones cut individually to fit an exact space in a setting, so they meet edge to edge with no metal showing between them. Expensive, painstaking and a hallmark of good Art Deco work.

Cannetille

Fine gold wire coiled into rosettes, scrolls and beehive shapes, used to make substantial-looking jewelry from very little gold. Roughly 1820 to 1840, so its presence is a tight date.

Carat

Two different words that share a spelling. As a weight it is 0.2 grams and describes a stone. As a fineness it is one twenty-fourth of pure and describes gold; 18 carat gold is 18 parts gold in 24. American usage spells the fineness sense karat to keep them apart.

Cartouche

The shaped outline around a punched mark. On hallmarks the shape of the surround is itself part of the information, changing at recorded dates.

Chasing

Working a design into metal from the front by pushing it with punches rather than removing it. The opposite of engraving, which cuts material away.

Closed back

A setting sealed behind the stone so no light passes through. Standard practice before about 1850, usually with a foil behind the stone. Never soak a closed-back piece: water gets in and the foil is destroyed.

Collet

A band of metal formed into a collar to hold a stone. An older word for a plain bezel, common in descriptions of Georgian work.

Culet

The facet at the very bottom point of a faceted stone. Old cuts leave it open as a small flat, which looks like a hole when you look down through the table. Modern cuts close it to a point. See the cut comparator.

Cushion cut

A squarish outline with rounded corners. In antique work it usually means an old mine cut; in modern work it is a deliberate revival of the shape with modern faceting.

D

Date letter

A letter struck by a British or Scandinavian assay office indicating the year of assay. The letter, its typeface and the shape of its surround together give the year exactly.

Demi-parure

A partial matched suite, usually a brooch and earrings, as opposed to a full parure with necklace, bracelets and tiara. Most surviving suites are demi-parures because the rest was sold off separately.

Die-stamped

Formed by pressing sheet metal between shaped dies. Cheap, fast, repeatable, and from the 1840s onward it is why an ordinary family could own gold jewelry at all.

Duty mark

The monarch's head struck on British precious metal between 1784 and 1890 to show excise duty had been paid. One of the tightest date brackets a single mark gives.

E

Electroplate

A surface layer of silver or gold deposited electrically on a base metal body. EPNS means electroplated nickel silver and contains no solid silver at all.

En tremblant

Mounted on a small spring so the element trembles with the wearer's movement. Used on the best floral brooches from the 1850s onward, and a sign of serious workmanship.

Etruscan revival

A style of the 1860s and 1870s imitating excavated ancient goldwork, characterised by granulation and fine wirework. Castellani in Rome set the standard.

F

Filigree

Openwork built from twisted fine wire. Distinct from pierced work, which starts as sheet and has metal removed.

Findings

The functional parts: catches, clasps, pins, hinges, earring fittings. The least interesting parts of a piece to look at and the most useful for dating it.

Fineness

The proportion of precious metal in an alloy expressed in parts per thousand. 750 is 75 per cent gold; 925 is 92.5 per cent silver. Look one up in the decoder.

Foil back

A thin sheet of coloured or silvered metal placed behind a stone in a closed setting to brighten it or shift its colour. Universal before 1850, ruined instantly by water.

French jet

Black glass, not jet at all. Colder to the touch than true jet and noticeably heavier. Common in mourning jewelry from the 1870s.

G

Gallery

The pierced band of metal below a stone setting that lets light in and lifts the stone above the shank. A finely pierced gallery is often the best evidence of quality on an otherwise plain ring.

Gilding

A gold surface applied to another metal. On silver the result is called vermeil or silver gilt; the body underneath is still precious.

Girdle

The widest band around a faceted stone, where the crown meets the pavilion. Old cuts often have a knife-thin girdle, which is why so many antique diamonds are chipped there.

Gold filled

A layer of real gold mechanically bonded to a base core, far thicker than plating. Marked as a fraction such as 1/20 12K GF. Durable and often well made, but not solid gold.

Granulation

Minute gold spheres fused to a surface without visible solder. An ancient technique lost and reconstructed in the nineteenth century, and the signature of Etruscan revival goldsmiths.

Guilloche

Machine-engraved repeating patterns, usually under translucent enamel so the pattern shimmers through. Faberge built a reputation on it.

Gypsy setting

A stone sunk flush into a thick band so its table sits level with the metal. Hard-wearing, masculine, and characteristic of late Victorian rings.

H

Hairwork

Human hair woven, plaited or laid under glass, set into rings, brooches and lockets. Sentimental rather than only mourning: hair was given by the living as often as taken from the dead.

Hallmark

Strictly, a mark struck by an official assay office guaranteeing fineness. Loosely, any stamp on jewelry. The distinction matters: a 925 stamped by a factory guarantees nothing.

I

Illusion setting

A white metal setting cut and polished to make a small diamond look considerably larger. Ubiquitous in mid twentieth century engagement rings.

Intaglio

A design cut into a stone so it sits below the surface, the reverse of a cameo. Used for seals, so the impression reads correctly in wax.

J

Jet

Fossilised wood, mined at Whitby in Yorkshire, warm to the touch and extremely light. The material of Victorian mourning after 1861 and the reason a whole town had an industry.

Jump ring

A small ring of wire joining two components. Whether it is soldered closed or left open, and how it wears, often reveals whether a piece has been altered.

L

Lavaliere

A light pendant necklace, usually with a drop and often set with small diamonds or pearls. Edwardian, named after a mistress of Louis XIV.

Lost wax casting

Making a metal object by casting it into a mould formed around a wax model. Ancient in principle, industrial in scale only from the twentieth century, which is why casting seams suggest a later date.

M

Marcasite

Not marcasite but iron pyrite, cut into small faceted stones and set in silver. Cheap sparkle from the eighteenth century onward and revived heavily in the 1920s.

Marquise

A pointed oval outline, also called navette. As a stone shape it is eighteenth century in origin; as a ring shape it describes the whole elongated head.

Millegrain

A rim of tiny beads raised along the edge of a setting with a knurling wheel, softening the line between metal and stone. The fingerprint of Edwardian and early Art Deco platinum work.

Mourning jewelry

Jewelry made to commemorate the dead, often carrying the name, date of death and age of the deceased, and frequently a lock of hair. Its inscriptions make it the most precisely datable jewelry there is.

N

Niello

A black metallic compound rubbed into engraved lines so the design reads in black against silver. Russian and Middle Eastern work uses it heavily.

O

Old European cut

A round diamond with a small table, high crown and open culet, cut roughly 1890 to 1930. The transition between the old mine cut and the modern brilliant. See old cut diamonds.

Old mine cut

A cushion-outlined diamond with a small table, high crown and an open culet, cut by hand and eye before about 1900. The word mine refers to the old Brazilian and Indian mines the rough came from.

Openwork

Any design pierced through so light passes behind it. Lightens a piece, uses less metal and, in Edwardian platinum, produces the lace effect the whole period aimed at.

P

Parure

A full matched suite of jewelry, typically necklace, earrings, brooch and bracelets, in a fitted case. Complete parures are rare because they were split up and sold piecemeal.

Paste

Leaded glass cut and set exactly like a gemstone, usually foiled and closed-backed. Georgian paste was a luxury in its own right, not a fake, and good examples are collected accordingly.

Pave

Stones set so close together that the metal beneath disappears, from the French for paved. Antique pave is set by hand into cut seats; modern pave is usually machine-assisted and looks it.

Pinchbeck

A copper and zinc alloy invented by Christopher Pinchbeck around 1720 that imitates gold convincingly and does not tarnish quickly. Genuine pinchbeck predates 1830 or so and is collected in its own right.

Pique

Tortoiseshell inlaid with tiny points or strips of gold or silver. Eighteenth century in origin, mass produced by the 1870s.

Plique-a-jour

Enamel held in a metal framework with no backing, so light passes through it like a stained glass window. Technically difficult, fragile, and central to Art Nouveau.

Provenance

The documented history of an object: who owned it, when it was sold, where it has been published. Provenance moves prices more than condition does.

R

Repousse

Raising a design in relief by hammering the metal from behind, usually finished from the front with chasing.

Rolled gold

The British term for gold filled: a sheet of gold bonded to a base core and rolled out. Marked RG or RGP.

Rose cut

A flat-backed stone with a domed, faceted top rising to a point and no pavilion. In use from the sixteenth century, revived repeatedly, and unmistakable because it sits flush on a flat surface.

S

Shank

The band of a ring. The part that wears thin, gets sized and loses its hallmarks, which is why so many old rings appear unmarked.

Sponsor's mark

The registered mark of the person or firm who submitted an item for assay. Often the maker, but sometimes the retailer or importer, so it is not proof of who made a piece.

Sterling

Silver of 925 parts per thousand, the British standard since the fourteenth century. Marked with a lion passant in England, the word STERLING in America, or the figure 925.

T

Table

The large flat facet on the top of a cut stone. Its width relative to the whole stone is the fastest way to separate antique from modern cutting: narrow is old, wide is new.

Transitional cut

A diamond cut in roughly the 1930s and 1940s, round like a modern brilliant but with a taller crown, smaller table and a culet that has nearly closed.

Trombone catch

A brooch catch where the pin slides into a tube pulled open by a small knob. Roughly 1880 to 1920 and mostly Continental, so it points at origin as well as date.

V

Vermeil

Sterling silver with a gold surface. Since the body is precious, vermeil is a different proposition from gold plate on base metal.

Vinaigrette

A small hinged box with a pierced inner grille holding a scent-soaked sponge, carried against bad air. Georgian and early Victorian, and always silver or gold.

Z

Zolotnik

The imperial Russian fineness system, in which purity is expressed out of 96. 84 zolotniks is 875 silver, 56 is 583 gold. Replaced by metric figures in 1927.