Antique Jewellery Heaven at Richard Ogden and Moira Jewels

With Christmas season upon us I have been having far too much fun playing around with the jewellery in the shop, so I thought I would give you a little sneak peek into what I got up to last week:

21ct diamond necklace from Tiffany & Co at Moira Jewels

Eeeeeh just a little something I threw on!  This is the most stunning diamond necklace from Tiffany’s, which belongs to Moira Jewels at Richard Ogden.  Fit for any old Christmas party I say!  Next time you walk through the Burlington Arcade, do make sure to peek into our windows at Richard Ogden – the centre one is extra prominent at the moment with a glorious selection of Moira’s jewellery!

Close up on the Tiffany diamond necklace…

… and then I may have found my way to our pink window…

Pink sapphire and diamond rings from Richard Ogden

Oopsy!  I couldn’t help myself.  On the far left you can see a five stone Garnet gold ring.  Five graduated oval almandine garnets are set with rose cut diamond points and it is all mounted in a Victorian style carved claw setting in yellow gold.

Next to it you can see a HUGE purple Tourmaline and diamond cluster ring, where the tourmaline is cabochon cut and surrounded by a single row of brilliant cut diamonds.  

One my ring finger I am wearing a Tourmaline (7.03 carats!) and diamond cluster ring.  Such a sweet design which I know will woo a few of you.  I just love cluster rings by the way, and I believe that Diana – and now Kate Middleton’s sapphire and diamond cluster ring has eternalised the design.  I get so many people coming in to look at cluster rings, and mainly the sapphire and diamond ones – understandably!  

Continuing on to the far right, you can see my very favourite ring in the whole shop: the Star Ruby whose acquaintance we made in the blog post: A Star Ruby Romance.  It is just such an extraordinary design and I can’t wait to see who ends up buying it!

Sooo that was an enjoyable way of finishing off my Friday afternoon and I can’t wait to go back in again tomorrow to see what new (old) pieces I will have to try on!

Suffragette Jewellery

An extraordinary set of suffragette jewellery from Moira Jewels at Richard Ogden.  Purple is represented by amethysts, green by peridots and white by pearls.

This exceptional piece of jewellery, referred to as Suffragette Jewellery, came into the shop the other day and since suffragette jewellery has such an important and fascinating role in history, I thought that we would take a closer look:

Suffragette Jewellery from Moira Jewels

The term Suffrage means the right to vote through the democratic process and in the late 19th and early 20th century members of women’s organisation movements  were referred to as Suffragettes.  In 1897 the The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was formed.  The NUWSS weren’t very successful in their progress for the cause, something that a few members found very frustrating, and in 1903 campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst broke away from the party and founded The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) together with her daughters.  

Suffragette Jewellery at Moira Jewels 

The motto of the WSPU was “Deeds not Words” and they took a rather militant approach to campaigning, when compared to other suffragist group at the time; committing acts of arson and vandalism and going on hunger strikes when imprisoned.  You may have heard of Emily Davison, who died after jumping out of the crowd in front of King George V’s racehorse in the Epsom Derby in June 1913.

In 1906 the British press started referring to the ladies as Suffragettes and there was widespread support for the cause from the public.  In 1908 the official colours of WSPU were declared: Purple stood for dignity, White for purity and Green for hope – and you can see these three colours in the pictures above and below.  The WSPU’s honorary treasurer Mrs Pethick Lawrence described the meaning of the colours as:

“Purple…is the royal colour…It stands for
the royal blood that flows in the veins of
every suffragette, the instinct of freedom
and dignity…white stands for purity in
private and public life…green is the colour
of hope and the emblem of spring.”

Suffragette Jewellery from Moira Jewels

Protesters in their hundreds would wear the colours and march behind similarly coloured banners – and Mappin & Webb, London jewellers to royalty, issued a catalogue of Suffragette Jewellery in time for Christmas 1908.  The same year 30,000 women took part in a demonstration in Hyde Park and they all wore accessories in these colours to  express their commitment to the cause.  Between a quarter and half a million people came to watch this extraordinary march.

A beautiful suffragette bracelet at Moira Jewels in Richard Ogden, the Burlington Arcade

In 1909, leading suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst and Louise Eates were both presented with specially commissioned pieces in purple, white and green.  In 1917 the WSPU changed their name to The Women’s Party and finally, in 1918 British women over the age of 30, who met certain property qualifications, were given the right to vote.  In 1928 suffrage was extended to all women over the age of 21.

Citrine and Topaz – the November Birthstones

“Who first comes to this world below
With drear November’s fog and snow,
Should prize the topaz’s amber hue,
Emblem of friends and lovers true.”

Above is the November birthstone poem included in Tiffany & Co’s pamphlet from 1870, “of unknown author”.  So the traditional birthstone for November is the Topaz, however, the Citrine is considered November’s contemporary birthstone, as it is more reasonably priced and also more easily available than the topaz.

From Richard Ogden square cut topaz, by Hemmerle, Munich

The topaz was given its name by the Romans, who discovered the stone on a small island in the Red Sea called Topazos.  Just to make things a bit more confusing; they also found the citrine on this very island, and I can assure you that these two gemstones can be very difficult to tell apart!  As history would have it, the topaz spent the rest of its life getting confused and mixed up with other gemstones, and most often with the citrine, as the two stones are very similar in colour – their shape and form are however different and helps us to tell them apart.

Citrine Ring ca 1960/70s, Decades of Elegance

The topaz comes in a wide range of colours – pure topaz is colourless yet with the addition of for example chromium, we get red and pink hues.  The most sought after colour is a reddish orange one, called Imperial Topaz, which can resemble the exceptional Padparadscha sapphire that I have mentioned before, but that I am yet to write a blog post about.  Topaz can also be found in tones of green, blue, yellow and brown – and these have all been mistaken for various other gemstones through times.  As a result of all these misconceptions, the topaz has been assigned a world of different healing properties!  It is associated with constancy, loyalty, faithfulness and friendship, as the poem above so beautifully points out.  It is also believed to help with health problems, including curing fever, asthma and insomnia.  Topaz is today found in Brazil, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and China.

From Moira Jewels: citrine and tourmaline necklace, mounted in gold

The topaz was popular amongst the royals during the Middle Ages and in the 13th century it was believed that a falcon engraved into a topaz would help its wearer cultivate the goodwill of kings, princes and magnates (2).

From Moira Jewels: a pair of citrine and tourmaline cluster earrings, mounted in gold

The other birthstone for November, the citrine, is known as the “healing quartz”.  It is believed to support vitality and health while encouraging and guiding hope, energy and warmth within the wearer (3).  We can find the citrine in a wide range of colours; from pastel yellow to dark brownish orange and it is most frequently found in Brazil, Bolivia, and Spain.  There are so many wonderful things to say about the citrine, as it is known in crystal work as a success and prosperity stone – to the point that it is called the “Success Stone”! (4)

Sources:

(1) Birthday Gems

(2) EarthSky

(3) American Gem Society – Citrine 

(4) Crystal and Jewelry

Moira Jewels at the LAPADA Art and Antiques Fair

Good morning dearest!  We are back at the LAPADA fair in Berkeley Square from the other week, and today we are admiring the collection of Moira Jewels:

A few beauties from Moira’s collection: a pair of aquamarine and diamond earrings, and a black opal ring with diamonds

I have been told by quite a few people to look closer at the pieces that belong to Moira’s collection, as they are some of the finest antique and vintage jewels around.  Above is a pair of aquamarine and diamond earrings – pretty sure I can hear a few of you swoon!

A few dress rings (also called cocktail rings) from Moira.  I adore the opal at the front here with its soft colours

I obviously have the privilege of looking at Moira’s pieces to my heart’s content, as they have their collection on display at Richard Ogden in the Burlington Arcade!  Their pieces span across the 20th century and you will find signed originals from the finest design houses, covering the art deco period – and continuing on to 1940s gold work and the modernist creations of the 1950s to the 1980s.

Vintage diamond watches from Moira Jewels

… and if you are anything like me, then these Art Deco diamond watches will make your heart beat just a little bit faster!  Oh can you imagine wearing one of these to that birthday party, or to those drinks at the weekend?  As soon as I wear a special piece of jewellery, I get so much more inspired to get dressed up and match it with a lovely dress.  I do think that we have moved away a little bit too much from the times when we would often wear our finest, so let’s just bring that back, shall we?  I am doing a proper summer to winter-wardrobe revamp this week and I will make sure to keep some glorious dresses out to stay inspired to wear them!

 Diamond tiaras from Moira Jewels

And these diamond tiaras were just too pretty you guys!!  Here in the UK (since I know that you lovely readers are based around the world) it is quite common for the bride to wear a tiara, and so it is just wonderful when these lovely ladies come into the shop and try on our collection of vintage and antique tiaras!  I would love to hear whether you would choose to wear a tiara or a veil or flowers or just a gorgeous hairdo at your wedding?

I will write a longer post on Moira Jewels soon and bring you some more photos of these heavenly pieces, and now I would like to wish you a lovely rest of the day!

 

Ingrid Bergman visiting Richard Ogden

Good evening my dear and happy Friday to you!  So I have just finished reading the autobiography of Ingrid Bergman, who in my view was one of the greatest actresses to ever have granted the silver screen with her presence.  I picked up a second hand copy of her book My Story, which she wrote with Alan Burgess, and once I started reading it I just couldn’t put it down until I had read it cover to cover.

Ingrid Bergman’s autobiography: My Story.  Top left ‘Ocean Breakers’, 1935.  Top right ‘Intermezzo’, 1939, with Ingrid and Leslie Howard

And when I then came to work the other day and mentioned the book to Robert Ogden, he told me this lovely story with her, which I just had to share with you:

This was back in the 1950s, when the world was deeply immersed in Ingrid Bergman-fever; with her movies showing all over the world and the paparazzi following her every move.  One day Richard Ogden received a phone call at his shop in the Burlington Arcade, where one of Ms Bergman’s staff asking whether Mr Ogden would be able to close the shop for an hour or so, to let Ms Bergman come and look at some jewellery.  Mr Ogden was happy to comply with the request, and to make sure that neither paparazzi nor any other visitors would enter the shop during her visit, a gentleman was placed outside the shop to guard the door.

While Ms Bergman was shown all these beautiful pieces of jewellery in the shop, an old lady who had been a customer for quite a while, approached the gentleman at post outside the door and asked whether she could go inside.  He told her that unfortunately no one was allowed in for a little while – but then he couldn’t help but add that if she peeked in through the window, could she tell him who was currently in the shop?  The old lady looked in through the window long and hard, before she turned back to him and delightedly said:

“Well yes of course I can – it is dear Mr Ogden!”

From the book My Story by Ingrid Bergman and Alan Burgess.  Above: Ingrid and Humphrey Bogart in ‘Casablanca’, 1942

I so love this story, and it is just one of many showing how fond staff and customers were of Richard Ogden.  One of my favourite things about working in the shop is hearing the stories that our customers tell us about buying a piece jewellery in the shop 50 years ago – or how their parents bought their wedding rings there.

And as for Ms Bergman’s book, I think that I will have to write another post about it book because it is just the most enticing reading…

The Beautiful Black Opal

Oh I am so excited about today’s post!!  Yesterday in the Richard Ogden shop I suddenly got my hands on this black opal and diamond ring, and so I thought that we could look closer at this extraordinary stone.  It is the one in the photo below to the left, and you can see how it is so beautifully surrounded by diamonds.  The ring to the right features a white opal, also surrounded by diamonds.

Black Opal and Diamond Ring

The world’s first black opal was found in an area of South Wales in Australia called Lightning Ridge in 1877 – we have already learnt about the history of opals in the previous blog post The enchanting landscape of the Opal.  Well, the world was overjoyed about this amazing find, as they had never seen anything like it!  In fact, opals had had a very bad reputation 50 odd years earlier, when Sir Walter Scott novel “Ann of Geierstein” associated the heroine’s unfortunate downfall with an opal.  Suddenly everyone believed that opals would bring bad luck, and so the opal trade suffered immensely for a long time – for no legitimate reason whatsoever!  This black opal was then fortunately brought to the attention of the world, and opals immediately sprung back into popularity – and Lightning Ridge remains the finest producer of black opals until this very day.

As you can see in the photo above, the body of the stone in a black opal is what gives the stone its name.  This darkness is caused by small trace elements of carbon and iron oxide, which you will not find in other opals (1).  The dark colour ranges from dark grey to pitch black, and the characteristic rainbow of colours that we have seen in “regular” opals will still be present in the stone.  Black opals are the most valuable ones because of the way the colour spectrum stands out so beautifully against this dark background.

You can also see above that the white opal to the right is cut with a cabochon (the shape of a dome) whereas the black opal has quite a flat top.  The reason for this is that the opal colour bar in the black stone is thinner than in the white one, and so it has to be cut thinner to retain its colour.

A white opal surrounded by diamonds

And do remember to wear your opal jewellery, as we have learnt that this lovely stone revels in the humidity of the skin and may break if left unworn for too long!

One of the rings in the first photo comes from the Richard Ogden-collection and the other one from Moira Jewels – and you can viewed them both at our favourite Richard Ogden shop in the Burlington Arcade

Sources:

(1) Opals Down Under

Antique Pearl Necklace Clasps vs Centre Motifs

 

Rows of antique pearl necklaces at Richard Ogden, in the Burlington Arcade

So I was working in the antique shop the other day – namely counting diamonds on a brooch – and having lost count a million or so times, I decided to take a little break and started aimlessly wandering around the shop instead.  I ended up – like so many times – by the pearl necklaces…  ahh sigh of happiness, they are just so beautiful!  The middle one in the photo above we have already familiarised ourselves with in the previous post Victorian Pearl Necklace with a Diamond Clasp, but I loved them all and started looking closer at them:

Pearl necklace with a diamond brooch clasp

This little beauty above is another example of a pearl necklace with a diamond brooch as the clasp; in other words it also has a very clever mechanism at the back which turns it into a brooch that you can wear separately.

The centre motif features a beautiful sapphire surrounded by eight diamonds

… and then there was this necklace with two rows of pearls and a centre motif featuring a sapphire.

This necklace is from around the 1920’s and I am obviously learning all these ways of determining the age of the pieces, and something that is very helpful is determining what metal has been used in the design – this one is set in platinum.  Platinum gained popularity in jewellery making in the beginning of the 20th century as it was such a beautiful and strong metal.  The use of platinum in anything other than military applications was however prohibited during the second World War, as it was declared a strategic material.  After the war it gained popularity again because of its properties: its strength allowed jewellery makers to create very fine yet durable designs.

A closer look at this beautiful antique pearls necklace with a centre motif featuring a sapphire and eight diamonds

The difference between this necklace and the first one in the post, is that the part with the sapphire and diamonds in this necklace is not used as a clasp – it is purely there for decorative reasons.  As a result it is referred to as the centre motif, and it looks a little something like this when worn:

Oh go on then, I will model the necklace to show you what it looks like on!  (yep, without doubt the best part about working in an antique jewellery shop!!)  

So there we have it – the difference between a clasp and a centre motif in antique jewellery (and of course also in modern jewellery, but I haven’t seen too many of these designs around in contemporary pieces – but if you have then please feel free to share with us below!)  Have a lovely weekend my dear!

All of the necklaces above can be found at Richard Ogden in the Burlington Arcade.

Victorian Pearl Necklace with a Diamond Clasp

“You can’t ever go wrong with pearls. Perhaps pearls are a girl’s best friend after all.” 

– Ki Hackney

Mid-Victorian pearl necklace with a diamond brooch as a clasp at Richard Ogden

Oh dear oh dear, yesterday was such a dream-day in the antique shop!  I was able to look closer at this Mid-Victorian pearl necklaces with a diamond clasp, and some of you will recognise the photo above from Instagram yesterday.

Mid-Victorian pearl necklace with a diamond brooch as a clasp

What I just love about Victorian jewellery is that the pieces are so often two-in-one, with the most clever little functions that you never would have expected.  With this necklace the secret is that the diamond clasp, which the ladies would wear so beautifully to the side, is detachable!  Since mass-productions hadn’t been invented yet, everything was handmade and very well thought through, and people didn’t own hundreds and hundreds of pieces of jewellery, so if a piece could double as two it would have been a very welcome addition to someone’s jewellery collection.

A close up of the diamond brooch which also functions as the clasp here

This pearl necklace is circa 1870 and again I am just so taken by the amazing condition of it, even after 150 years!  The pearls are so beautiful and the clasp is intact.  If you look a little closer at the centre diamond in the photo above, you will see that it is an old diamond because there is a teeny tiny “hole” in the middle of the stone.  It looks like a round dot, can you see it?  This is such a typical characteristic of an old diamond which I just love, as it brings an air of history and romance.

This “dot” in the middle of the diamond is there because the bottom point of the diamond has been polished flat, instead of pointy – (you get pointy in modern diamonds).  Hundreds of years ago the diamond cutters didn’t have the same advanced technology as we do today when it came to polishing diamonds, so instead of risk losing a piece of the diamond by trying to make a pointy culet, they reverted to making them flat.  So when you look into the stone from above the flat culet at the bottom will look like a little dot in the middle of the stone!

The design at the back of the brooch

Here is the back of the clasp, which you can see is very well designed with all diamonds in place and a complicated mechanism to detach it from the necklace.

The clasp can be turned into a brooch thanks to the mechanics on the back

We are going to look at the difference in Clasps and Brooch Centre Motifs in the next post, because I thought that they were the same thing, but this beautiful sapphire and pearl necklace decided to prove me wrong:

Pearl necklace with a diamond and sapphire centre motif

 

A 1940s Swedish Diamond Bracelet

Oh I just had to share this little story with you from my workday in Burlington Arcade last week: in the Richard Ogden-shop we also have the beautiful collection from Moira Jewels on display, and so I was browsing Moira’s website, trying to find a photo of a glorious piece of jewellery to add to Instagram.  Out of all the hundreds of stunning pieces on the website I immediately fell in love with this one:

A 1940s diamond bracelet from Moira Jewels at Richard Ogden

It is a diamond bracelet mounted in platinum, with round brilliant-cut diamonds and alternating flowers with diamond borders, set with eight-cut and round brilliant-cut diamonds.  My colleagues however thought it was very funny, as apparently I had managed to pick out the one piece of jewellery that was Swedish!  Such a coincidence indeed, and I suppose that we are all influenced by our origin whether we know it or not.  This beautiful piece with its elegant lines and striking design is thought to have been made in Sweden in the 1940s.

During the 40’s lots of materials were in fact heavily rationed because of the war, and ladies’ outfits were sober in style, very much influenced by the military gear that the gents would wear.  These streamlined outfits however found their opposites in the jewellery worn, as our beautiful ladies of the time would go for rather imaginative and decorative pieces!  I find it so fascinating to see how the social situation influenced people’s style and I think that a blog post on 1940s fashion will be in place soon!

Have a lovely Wednesday dear!

A Star Ruby Romance

I came across a Star Ruby in the shop the other day and it was so beautiful that immediately started my research to be able to show you what it looks like:

A star ruby and diamond cluster ring at Richard Ogden in Burlington Arcade

A Star Ruby is a type of ruby that shows a star-like phenomenon known as asterism.  The word “Asterism” is derived from the Greek word “aster”, which means star, so asterism is often referred to as “star” or “star-effect”.  The six-rayed star pattern that you can see in the gemstone is caused by needle-like inclusions that cross each other’s paths when they follow the underlying crystal structure.  Star rubies tend to be cut in cabochon style – like a dome – so that the centre of the star resides at the top of the dome.

You can see the star ruby to the top right here, and I took this photo so that you can see what it looks like when the star isn’t centred 

The placement of the star in the gemstone depends on the angle that you view it from, and in the photo above you can see an example of the star not being centred (the ring to the top right).  Out of every 100 mined corundom (rubies and sapphires) only three will show this star pattern – and only one out of these three will have a good star and good colour!  What really confused me with this particular star ruby was the colour, as I thought that it was a star sapphire (assuming that rubies are red sapphires and any other colour would be a sapphire!).  However, we get pinkish-red, purplish-red or purplish-brown rubies, and the one here is obviously a purplish-red one.

Purple Star Ruby and Diamond Cluster Ring at Richard Ogden

This beautiful star ruby is surrounded by diamonds in a classic Cluster Ring-setting and if you love it lots and lots you can buy it at Richard Ogden in Burlington Arcade for £4200 – and you can see it on their website here.