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Vintage JewelryEst. 1973

Glossary

Vintage jewelry terms A to Z

Bezel, cabochon, millegrain, plique-a-jour: every word we use in a description, explained plainly.

Written by our in-house jewelry team · Updated August 7, 2026 · 10 min read

Victorian yellow gold locket and seed pearls on aged linen with old letters
Vintage jewelry terms A to Z

In short

A vintage jewelry glossary explains the construction terms, cut names, materials and hallmark language used to describe antique jewelry, from bezel and gallery to old mine cut, millegrain, vermeil and plique-a-jour, so a buyer can read a listing the way a jeweler would.

Every trade has its own shorthand, and antique jewelry has more of it than most. A single listing might mention a gallery, a girdle, a culet and a closed back, and none of those words mean what you might guess from everyday English.

This glossary collects the terms we actually use, organized from A to Z so you can look one up in a moment, or read straight through and come away speaking the language yourself.

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A

  • Art Deco — the geometric, machine-age jewelry style of roughly 1920 to 1935.
  • Art Nouveau — the flowing, nature-based style of roughly 1890 to 1910, favoring enamel and sinuous line over stone value.
  • Aesthetic period — the late Victorian years, roughly 1885 to 1901, marked by lighter, smaller jewelry.
  • Acrostic jewelry — a piece set with stones whose first letters spell a word, such as REGARD or DEAREST.
  • Amber — fossilized tree resin, warm and light, sometimes containing trapped insect or plant matter.
  • Art glass — decorative colored glass used as a paste or costume substitute for gemstones.

B

  • Bail — the loop on a pendant or charm through which a chain passes.
  • Bakelite — an early, hard plastic used from the 1920s to 1940s for colorful bangles, pins and beads.
  • Baguette cut — a narrow, rectangular step cut, common as an accent stone from the 1920s onward.
  • Bezel — a rim of metal wrapped around a stone to hold it in place, with or without an open back.
  • Book chain — a flat chain of folded, book-shaped links, popular in the Victorian period.
  • Bog oak — ancient oak preserved in peat bogs, carved into black jewelry mainly in 19th century Ireland.
  • Bombe — a rounded, domed form used for rings and brooches.
  • Brilliant cut — a faceting style built around triangular and kite facets to maximize light return.
  • Buckle motif — a belt or garter buckle shape used as a symbol of loyalty and eternal bond.

C

  • Cabochon — a stone polished into a smooth dome with no facets.
  • Calibre cut — small stones cut to a shape that fits a setting exactly, with no gaps between them.
  • Cameo — a raised relief carving, usually a profile, cut from shell, hardstone or coral.
  • Cannetille — fine twisted wire and tiny beads worked into lacy, filigree-like decoration, typical of the 1820s to 1840s.
  • Carre cut — a small square step-cut stone, often used as a side or accent stone.
  • Chasing — decorating metal by hammering it from the front with punches, without removing metal.
  • Channel setting — stones set in a row between two parallel metal walls, with no visible prongs.
  • Closed-back setting — a setting with a solid metal backing behind the stone, often foiled to enhance color, typical before the late 1800s.
  • Collet — a plain metal band or bezel encircling a stone, an older term for a simple bezel setting.
  • Culet — the small flat facet, or a point, at the bottom of a diamond, often visible from above in old cuts.
  • Cushion cut — a squarish cut with rounded corners and larger facets, common through the 19th century.
Vintage gold ring on a bench block among jeweler's hand tools at the goldsmith workbench
Glossary — from the pieces and workshop notes behind this guide.

D

  • Demantoid garnet — a rare green garnet, mined chiefly in the Ural Mountains from the 1860s, prized in Russian and later jewelry.
  • Die-struck — metal formed by stamping it between hardened dies, giving crisp, repeatable detail cheaper than hand chasing.
  • Double clip brooch — a brooch made of two matching clips that can be worn together or separately, popular in the 1930s and 1940s.
  • Doublet — a composite stone made of two joined layers, sometimes used to imitate a more valuable single stone.

E

  • Edwardian — the jewelry style of roughly 1901 to 1915, marked by platinum, lace-like openwork and garland motifs.
  • Enamel — colored glass fused to metal at high heat, used for decoration and, in black, for mourning jewelry.
  • Etruscan revival — a 19th century style reviving ancient granulation and wirework, popular from the 1860s to 1880s.
  • Eternity ring — a ring set with stones running fully or partly around the band, given to mark a lasting bond.

F

  • Facet — a flat, polished face cut into a gemstone to control how light enters and exits.
  • Festoon necklace — a necklace of two or more looping chains or garlands, common in the Edwardian period.
  • Filigree — decorative openwork made from fine twisted or plain wire, popular from the Edwardian era through the 1920s.
  • Findings — the small functional parts of a piece of jewelry, such as clasps, jump rings, pin backs and ear wires.
  • Foiled stone — a stone backed with metal foil to brighten or change its color, common before modern lighting made it unnecessary.

G

  • Gallery — the pierced or solid structure of metal beneath a stone setting, connecting it to the shank or mount.
  • Girandole — an earring or pendant with three drops hanging from a central bow or stud, an 18th and 19th century form.
  • Girdle — the narrow band around the widest part of a cut gemstone, where the crown meets the pavilion.
  • Gold filled — a base metal core with a thick layer of karat gold mechanically bonded to it, thicker and more durable than plating.
  • Granulation — decoration made from tiny beads of gold fused to a surface, an ancient technique revived in the 19th century.
  • Guilloche — a fine engine-turned pattern cut into metal, often enameled over so the pattern shows through translucently.
  • Gutta percha — an early rubber-like natural latex, molded into black mourning jewelry in the mid to late 1800s.

H

  • Hallmark — an official mark struck on precious metal indicating its purity, and in some countries the maker and assay office.
  • Hair jewelry — jewelry incorporating or made from woven human hair, used as a sentimental or mourning keepsake, mainly Victorian.
  • Hinged bangle — a rigid bracelet that opens on a hinge, usually secured by a box clasp with a safety catch.

J

  • Jabot pin — a decorative straight pin with an ornament at each end, used to secure a collar or drape of fabric.
  • Jet — a dense, black organic gem material formed from fossilized wood, carved into mourning jewelry, chiefly from Whitby.
  • Jump ring — a small metal ring used to connect components such as a clasp to a chain.

K

  • Karat — a measure of gold purity out of 24 parts, so 18K gold is 18 parts gold to 6 parts other metal.
  • Knife-edge — a shank or wire profile that comes to a narrow ridge rather than a flat or rounded surface, common in Art Deco design.

L

  • Lavaliere — a pendant necklace with one or two drops, hanging from a fine chain, fashionable in the Edwardian era.
  • Lorgnette — folding eyeglasses on a handle, often decorative and worn on a chain, an accessory rather than jewelry proper.
  • Lover's knot — an interlaced loop motif symbolizing a bond that cannot be undone, used across many eras.

M

  • Marcasite — small faceted pieces of pyrite set closely together to imitate the sparkle of diamonds, popular in Georgian and later revival jewelry.
  • Marquise cut — a boat-shaped cut with pointed ends, also called navette.
  • Millegrain — a decorative border of tiny raised beads worked along a metal edge with a wheel tool, typical of Edwardian and Art Deco work.
  • Mine cut — see old mine cut.
  • Minerva mark — the head of Minerva used as part of the French hallmark system to denote gold purity.
  • Mourning jewelry — jewelry made or worn to commemorate the dead, typically in jet, black enamel or hair, mainly 19th century.

N

  • Niello — a black metallic alloy inlaid into engraved metal for contrast, an old technique seen in Russian and Continental silver.
  • Navette cut — see marquise cut.

O

  • Old European cut — a round diamond cut used from roughly the 1890s to the 1930s, with a small table, high crown and open culet.
  • Old mine cut — an earlier diamond cut, roughly 18th century to the 1890s, with a cushion-shaped outline, a smaller table, a higher crown and a larger culet than the old European cut.
  • Openwork — metalwork pierced through to create a pattern, reducing weight and adding light.

P

  • Paste — cut and polished glass used to imitate gemstones, made since the 18th century and valued in its own right today.
  • Pave — a setting technique in which many small stones are set close together so the metal supporting them barely shows.
  • Pendeloque — a drop-shaped, fully faceted cut used for pendant and earring stones.
  • Pinchbeck — a copper and zinc alloy made to resemble gold, used in the 18th and early 19th centuries before cheaper gold plating existed.
  • Plique-a-jour — enamel applied with no metal backing, so light passes through it like a miniature stained-glass window.
  • Prong — a metal claw that grips a stone to hold it in its setting.

R

  • Repousse — a technique of shaping metal into relief decoration by hammering it from the reverse side.
  • Retro — the bold, sculptural jewelry style of roughly 1935 to 1950, favoring rose gold and large scale.
  • Riviere — a necklace of similarly cut and graduated stones set in a continuous line.
  • Rose cut — a stone with a flat base and a domed top covered in triangular facets, common from the 17th to the 19th century.
  • Rose gold — gold alloyed with a higher proportion of copper, giving it a pink or reddish tone.

S

  • Seed pearl — a very small natural pearl, often strung on horsehair or thread and worked into Georgian and Victorian jewelry.
  • Shank — the band portion of a ring, running from one side of the setting to the other.
  • Solitaire — a piece, usually a ring, set with a single stone.
  • Step cut — a rectangular or square cut with parallel facets arranged in rows, as in an emerald cut.
  • Suffragette jewelry — jewelry combining green, white and violet stones, associated with the early 20th century women's suffrage movement.

T

  • Table — the large, flat top facet of a cut gemstone.
  • Tassie — a molded glass medallion imitating an engraved gem, named for the 18th century gem engraver James Tassie.
  • Tremblant — a mount fitted with a small spring so a decorative element, often a flower head, trembles as the wearer moves.
  • Trombone clasp — a sliding pin-and-tube clasp mechanism used for brooches and some bracelets.

V

  • Vermeil — sterling silver plated or coated with gold.
  • Vinaigrette — a small, hinged container with a pierced inner grille, historically holding a sponge soaked in aromatic vinegar.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an old mine cut and an old European cut diamond?
Both are hand-cut round diamond styles that predate the modern brilliant. The old mine cut is earlier, roughly 18th century to the 1890s, and tends to have a squarer outline and a smaller table. The old European cut, common from the 1890s to the 1930s, is rounder with a slightly larger table, but both keep the high crown and open culet that give antique diamonds their soft, warm sparkle.
What does millegrain mean on a ring?
Millegrain is a decorative border of tiny raised metal beads worked along an edge with a hand or wheel tool. It appears constantly on Edwardian and Art Deco jewelry, both for decoration and to help hold pave stones in place, and it softens or disappears if a ring is polished too heavily over the years.
What is pinchbeck and is it worth anything?
Pinchbeck is a copper and zinc alloy developed in the 18th century to imitate gold, used before affordable gold plating existed. It has no bullion value, but well-made pinchbeck pieces are collected for their design and age, and honest early examples can be valued by collectors on that basis.
What is the difference between vermeil and gold filled?
Vermeil is sterling silver with a layer of gold plated or coated onto it. Gold filled is a base metal core mechanically bonded to a comparatively thick layer of karat gold. Gold filled wears longer than vermeil because its gold layer is thicker and more durable, though neither is solid gold throughout.
Why do closed-back settings have foil behind the stone?
Before modern lighting and cutting styles maximized brilliance on their own, jewelers backed a stone with reflective metal foil, sometimes tinted, to brighten or even color the stone from behind. It is a normal and expected feature of pre-1900 closed-back jewelry rather than a flaw.

Written by our estate jewelry team and reviewed by our in-house gemologist. We have been buying and selling European antique jewelry since 1973.

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