Category: Blog

A DIY Guide For Authenticating Designer Jewelry Without the Cost

Authenticating designer costume jewelry yourself can be a bit challenging, but with careful examination and research, you can often identify genuine pieces from replicas or counterfeits. Here are steps you can take to authenticate designer costume jewelry on your own:

1. **Research the Designer**:

   – Start by learning about the designer or brand whose costume jewelry you have. Study their history, design styles, and notable collections. The more you know about the designer, the better you can spot authentic pieces.

2. **Inspect Hallmarks and Logos**:

   – Look for any hallmarks, logos, or markings on the jewelry. These can be found on the back of pins, clasps, or near the jewelry’s connectors. Familiarize yourself with the designer’s official logos and compare them to what’s on the piece.

   – Check for spelling errors or inconsistencies in the logos or hallmarks, as counterfeits often have these.

3. **Examine Materials and Quality**:

   – Authentic designer costume jewelry often uses higher-quality materials like plated metals, quality resin, glass, or crystal elements. Pay attention to the quality of these materials and their finish.

   – Check for signs of wear and tear, as genuine vintage pieces may show signs of age.

4. **Evaluate Craftsmanship**:

   – Designer costume jewelry is known for its attention to detail and craftsmanship. Examine the piece closely for well-executed settings, precise connectors, and quality finishes.

   – Look for any irregularities or flaws in the craftsmanship, which may indicate a counterfeit.

5. **Compare to Known Authentic Pieces**:

   – If possible, compare your piece to known authentic examples of the designer’s work. You can do this by referring to collector’s guides, online forums, or social media groups dedicated to costume jewelry enthusiasts.

   – Look for similarities in design, materials, and construction.

6. **Check for Limited Editions**:

   – Determine if your piece is part of a limited edition or a specific collection. Such information can add to its authenticity and value. The designer’s official website or catalogs can help with this.

7. **Ask for Documentation**:

   – If you have any original packaging, tags, or certificates of authenticity that came with the jewelry, carefully examine them for consistency with the item you have. However, keep in mind that such documentation can be faked.

8. **Seek Expert Opinion**:

   – If you’re uncertain about the authenticity of your piece, consider consulting with a costume jewelry expert or collector. They may have the expertise to provide a more definitive assessment.

9. **Purchase from Reputable Sellers**:

   – Whenever possible, buy costume jewelry from reputable sources such as established jewelry stores, known online marketplaces with good reviews, or auction houses that specialize in designer costume jewelry. These sources are more likely to sell authentic pieces.

10. **Trust Your Instincts**:

    – If something about the piece or the seller raises doubts, be cautious and consider seeking an alternative source or item.

“Remember that authenticating designer costume jewelry can sometimes be challenging, especially with well-made replicas on the market. If you’re uncertain about a piece’s authenticity, it’s often worth seeking expert advice to ensure you’re making a genuine purchase.

There are several online authentication services that offer fast and reliable results. By submitting photos to them, you can usually get results in as little as 24 hours. The cost typically ranges from $25 to $75, depending on whether you would like a certificate to go along with your authentication results. This investment helps safeguard your purchase and provides peace of mind.

Buying from us at The Vintage Advantages is another way to ensure you’re getting authentic jewelry pieces. We take authenticity seriously and have already had our items authenticated by Authenticate Jewelry, a trusted company that works with businesses. This allows us to offer pre-authenticated items to our customers. We believe in a hassle-free shopping experience, which is why we offer free returns for items that are counterfeit or if you simply have changed your mind. This takes the risk out of your purchase, as we provide you with a prepaid return label, no questions asked, to ensure our customers are fully satisfied with every purchase. Your trust and satisfaction are our top priorities.”

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Antique jewelry refers to any piece of jewelry that is at least 100 years old. It can include a wide range of jewelry styles, materials, and designs from various periods in history.

Antique jewelry can be made from a variety of materials, including precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum, as well as materials like enamel, coral, and ivory. Some antique jewelry may also feature gemstones such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and pearls.

The styles of antique jewelry can vary widely depending on the time period in which they were created. For example, Victorian-era jewelry often featured intricate designs with detailed filigree work, while Art Nouveau jewelry often featured flowing, organic lines and motifs inspired by nature. Art Deco jewelry, which was popular in the 1920s and 1930s, featured geometric shapes and bold, colorful designs.

Antique jewelry can be valuable both for its historical significance and its beauty. Some antique jewelry pieces can be quite rare and valuable, particularly those that are in good condition and have a documented history of ownership. Many antique jewelry collectors also appreciate the craftsmanship and attention to detail that went into creating these pieces by hand, often with tools and techniques that are no longer used today.

The era of antique jewelry that is the most collected varies depending on the preferences of individual collectors. However, some of the most popular eras for antique jewelry include:

1. Victorian era (1837-1901): This era is known for its sentimental and romantic styles, featuring designs such as lockets, cameos, and mourning jewelry.
2. Art Nouveau era (1890-1910): This era featured nature-inspired designs with flowing lines, often incorporating elements such as flowers, birds, and insects.
3. Art Deco era (1920s-1930s): This era was characterized by bold geometric shapes, bright colors, and a focus on luxury and glamour.
4. Retro era (1940s-1950s): This era featured designs that were influenced by the Hollywood glamour of the time, often featuring large gemstones and bold, sculptural designs.

Overall, the popularity of different eras of antique jewelry can fluctuate depending on trends and personal preferences, but these eras are generally considered to be among the most collectible and sought-after by antique jewelry enthusiasts.

Jewelry – the Process and Creation: Behind the scenes of today’s fashion houses, jewelry is produced for the runways. How did this come to happen? Where did it begin?

Jewelry – the Process and Creation

History:

Although Desrues was born as a company in 1929, its story actually began several years earlier when its founder, Georges Desrues, began working for Mr. Chandelier, a craftsman producing costume jewelry and accessories, and who was working with the great Parisian couturiers of the time.
Convinced that fashion was his vocation, Georges Desrues developed the company, bringing in new ideas and skills (engraving, polishing and gilding) and turned Maison Chandelier into Madeleine Vionnets sole supplier.
In 1929, Mr. Chandelier retired. From his workshop in the rue Amelot, just a stones throw from the Cirque d’Hiver, Georges Desrues took over the running of the company, working with a number of the most prestigious designers of the time including Jeanne Lanvin, Christian Dior, Mademoiselle Chanel and Yves Saint-Laurent.

The first collections of buttons for Mademoiselle Chanel were created in 1965, and Georges Desrues was soon to become her preferred supplier. In 1984, he transferred control of his business to Chanel in order to protect the vast know-how acquired over the years. Georges Desrues continued his work, his great passion, until his death in 1992.

The companys development, driven by the remarkable success of Chanel, soon meant that the premises in the rue Amelot were too small, so Desrues moved its workshops to the North of Paris.

Desrues Today:

At Plailly, in the Oise region, with its large atrium windows overlooking the countryside, Desrues company of 200 highly skilled employees work on machines that are able to mould, sculpt, dye, gild, emboss, enamel and polish the most precious jewelry and buttons for Chanel, its biggest client, as well as for Louis Vuitton and many others.

Desrues has preserved a high level of know-how devoted to an exclusive niche market, a reminder of its special partnerships with the great French couturiers of its time (Chanel, Lanvin, Vionnet, Dior, Saint Laurent), but has also incorporated modern techniques in order to meet the needs of the luxury ready-to-wear market.

Every one of the glorious items of personal jewelry belonging to Mademoiselle Chanel, given to her by Grand Duke Dimitri Romanov or the Duke of Westminster, has been reinterpreted and reproduced to the delight of Chanels clientele. Equally, Karl Lagerfeld has never once created a collection which did not include unique pieces of jewelry designed to satisfy the most unexpected desires of every generation: toe rings, bracelets, hair jewelry and anklets alongside Byzantine crosses, cuff bracelets encrusted with hard stones, cascading pearls, necklaces and curb chains. Thanks to the combined talents of man and machine, eight times a year a new collection of at least 100 pieces is offered to the public.

In the days leading up to the designers catwalk shows, the atmosphere within the company becomes feverish with activity. Each collection may require the creation of forty or so new buttons, plus a hundred new pieces of jewelry made from the most diverse materials with the most complex finishes. This makes each collection a real challenge for Desrues, which the firm handles brilliantly thanks to its skilled staff and a unique network of suppliers. Since it was founded, more than 80,000 products have left its workshops, a real treasure-trove covering 70 years of fashion.

Nothing is impossible to a willing heart, this quote could actually be the motto for the Desrues company, where imagination supports both tradition and innovation with the same creative flair.

Crafts:

Moulding and casting metals, glass enamelling, machining wood, remodelling resins, polishing, soldering, lacquering, varnishing, gilding, silver plating, working with lead glass and threading pearls: Desrues is home to a wide range of specialisations.

On either side of a long corridor punctuated by numerous doors, the company puts it skills to work. Each door opens onto a workshop, where meticulous hands work with copper, pewter, silver, mother-of-pearl, jet, wood, galalith, glass and even resin to produce outstanding buttons and pieces of jewelry.

Everything begins with a mock-up. From this prototype, which embodies the designers ideas, a metal or silicon mould is made; molten metal is cast, centrifuged, removed from the mould and deburred. It is then polished, using a buffer, ready to be gilded, silver plated or given its patina and varnished. For organic materials (animal horn, mother-of-pearl, etc.), templates are created using computer-aided drawing techniques and are then programmed into the automated laser cutting machines. The thousands of buttons created in this way then pass through quality control, the final manual operation in this fascinating creative process.

The nature of jewelry, however, requires that a certain hand-crafted element be retained. The heated glass rods which position beads are guided by hand, the links in chains and belts are assembled and crimped by hand, and the setting of pearls and cabochons is also a manual task.
In order to meet the needs of its clients, Desrues has successfully and subtly combined high-tech resources with the skills of its craftsmen.