1920s Diamond Cocktail Watches

Ohh can I just share my latest obsession with you guys?!  Diamond set cocktail watches from the 1920s…

I am in love with these two 1920s cocktail watches from Moira...

These two beauties came into the shop recently and belong to Moira Fine Jewellery, and the owner told me that it is quite rare to find watches that are also set with rubies or emeralds – usually they “only” feature diamonds.  Ahh the craftsmanship here is just exquisite, look at the flow of the gemstones, how evenly set they are without any interfering metal in between.

That is actually another thing I wanted to talk to you about; I speak to a lot of lovely people who are looking for engagement rings, and I know that many come into the shop for inspiration and then order their things online or have them made elsewhere.  That is totally fine, but the sad part is when they then bring in the jewellery a few months later and ask us to help repair them, because the stone is rattling in the mount or diamonds have fallen out… There is a reason why some pieces are cheaper online and you have to ask yourself if you want a ring that you can wear for the rest of your life, knowing that it is of the best quality – or if you want to cut corners now and then deal with the problems as they arise.  A handmade ring mount designed for your diamond is a million times better than a mass-produced cast mount, where any old diamond has been set… just something to keep in mind!

All of these beautiful antique pieces were handmade and these watches are perfect examples of what the end product would look like:

Two stunning cocktail watches from Moira Fine Jewellery – the left one set with rubies and the right one set with emeralds.  Very unusual design, as mostly they are only diamond set 

They obviously would only be worn at special occasions – another thing for us to remember with antique jewellery; ladies of the time wouldn’t do a lot of housework and gardening, so the jewellery wouldn’t have been made with that kind of work in mind.  That is why one has to be extra vigilant with older jewellery and make sure to have them checked over by a jewellery once a year so that the claws are intact and holding the diamonds the way they are supposed to!

Now if only I had the perfect party to wear one of these to…

This past week at Richard Ogden

Hello sweetheart!  So I love looking through the photos on my phone and seeing what lovely jewellery has crossed my path in the past week, and today is no exception!  We will start with this beautiful turquoise, pearl and gold necklace from the 1880/90s that one of our dealers showed me the other day:

Stunning necklace ca 1880/1890s

 

Gold, pearl and turquoise necklace ca 1880/1890s – sorry about the shaky picture, I must have been so overwhelmed by the beautiful design that I just couldn’t keep my hand steady! 

It is a typical English design with a nature motif, which was so very popular toward to the turn of the last century, which is when this necklace is from.  I had a chat to one of the dealers about whether it was an Art Nouveau piece or not, and he didn’t think so as it doesn’t quite carry the specific design of Art Nouveau, but he did say that there are some very pretty scroll work in the piece.

I obviously adore it especially because my grandmother loves the combination of gold and turquoise – and with the pearls it just becomes so delicate and romantic.  I would love to wear it with a nice and light summer dress, oh and speaking of which: I can’t WAIT for summer to come around, I am sure you feel the same way!!!

Gold bracelets from Richard Ogden, BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair

And I spent this morning looking through our stock from the BADA fair and got stuck dreaming away on these chunky gold bracelets from Harvey & Gore.  They have some pretty exquisite jewellery, so if you are ever walking down the Burlington Arcade, do take a look in our windows, and you will see the Harvey & Gore collection in our last window down towards Piccadilly.  Everything is obviously beautiful, but these guys have some exquisite period pieces that are so much fun to look at!

So there we are dearest, I should be back again on Tuesday next week, as I am bit tied up on Monday.  I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and I can’t wait to bring you some more beautiful pieces next week!

The Beautiful World of Emeralds

Good afternoon my dear, I hope that you have had a lovely one so far.  I find that a New Year always motivates me to sort things out and start afresh, and this January is no exception!  Today for example I have been transferring a lot of jewellery photos onto an external hard drive, to hopefully free up a bit of space on my laptop – and I kept running into all these interesting pictures of emeralds, that I wanted to share with you:

Emerald and Diamond ring from Richard Ogden, in the Burlington Arcade

The ring above features an emerald and two diamonds and it landed in my hands at work, as the stone weight needed to be measured.  Now I have learnt to calculate the weight of a gemstone the old school way too, but in this case I played around with an amazing app on my phone, where the following result came up:

My measurement of an emerald in the Gem Weight App

As per usual I was a few digits away from my boss’ result, but not too far, so I was quite pleased!  Often when you buy an antique or vintage diamond ring, the diamond hasn’t been taken out of its setting to be measured and certificated, as it could damage the beautiful old settings, so the antique dealers have to be very good at calculating weights etc from difficult angles.  I always find it such fun to try to master a diamond gauge – they look like this (top right corner of the photo):

A diamond gauge at the top right of the picture, used to calculate the weight of gemstones

And emeralds are just such divine little gemstones!  Sometimes people come by to look at an emerald ring for an engagement ring, but I tend to advise them to either choose a diamond, a sapphire or a ruby – only because emeralds are not the hardest stones around…

Emerald and Diamond Ring Art Deco style from Moira Fine Jewels

… and the last thing you want to do when you wear your engagement ring every day, is having to worry about cracking or denting it, so a more robust gemstone is usually a better idea.  However – I know one lady who has worn an aquamarine, which is an ever softer stone than an emerald, as her engagement ring for thirty years, and it is in perfect shape!  So it obviously also comes down to what kind of a person you are – I for one could never wear anything even remotely fragile, as I would damage it in no time.  Unfortunately!

Emerald and Diamond Ring from Moira Fine Jewels at Richard Ogden, Burlington Arcade

And here is another lovely emerald and diamond ring – this one is from Moira Fine Jewels and you can pop by Richard Ogden in the Burlington Arcade to view it closer, if it takes your fancy.

Late Friday Night Sparkle

Hello my lovely, I hope you are looking forward to the weekend as much as I am!  I have a small update to share with you today: for the next few months I will be writing the blog on Mondays and Wednesdays, but not on Fridays.  I have a LOT of things on my plate until this summer and obviously I want to keep up the quality of the blog, so that is the best solution for now!

We have had some busy times in the antique shop with Moira Fine Jewels preparing for the Los Angeles Jewelry, Antique & Design Show!

As for fun things that are happening in the jewellery world: the Richard Ogden Fine Jewels shop is busy busy at the moment, as Moira Fine Jewels is heading off to an antique jewellery show in Los Angeles!  In other words, the most glorious pieces of jewellery are coming into my eyesight on a regular basis and it is just heaven!  I haven’t come across any other antique jewellery dealers that have more fascinating signed pieces that these guys; Cartier, Boucheron, van Cleef and Arpels…

A pair of glorious 4ct diamond stud earrings from Moira Fine Jewels – just a little something I threw on this morning!

… and from time to time I cave in and help out by trying some of the pieces on – purely for non-selfish reasons of course!

Pretty glorious 1920s Art Deco diamond necklace from Moira Fine Jewels

I have also been past a couple of lovely antique and vintage shops in Dorking again, and can’t wait to bring you those posts.  Until then, have a wonderful weekend and remember to wear your most beautiful pieces of jewellery, and be your most fabulous self!  That reminds me that I must wear my most fabulous pieces of jewellery to a brunch on Saturday… hmm… looking forward to rummaging through my jewellery box tomorrow!!!

A little preview into a blog post about Christique Antique Centre in Dorking – such a treasure trove of antique jewellery, furniture and objects d’art!