Guides
What antique jewelry motifs mean
Serpents, hearts, bows, flowers and clasped hands. Nineteenth century jewelry was a language, and most of it can still be read.
Snake and serpent jewelry: meaning and history
The Victorian symbol of eternal love, and why Prince Albert put one on Victoria's finger.
6 min read
Heart jewelry: meaning and history
Witch's hearts, crowned hearts and double hearts, and what each one was given to say.
6 min read
Bow jewelry: meaning and history
The knot that cannot be untied, from eighteenth century court ribbons to Edwardian platinum lace.
6 min read
Flower jewelry and the language of flowers
Forget-me-nots, pansies, ivy and lilies, and what a Victorian giver expected you to read into them.
6 min read
Hands in jewelry: fede, claddagh and mizpah
Two clasped hands, one of the oldest promises in European jewelry, and its Irish descendant.
6 min read
Acrostic and regard jewelry explained
Rings that spell a word in gemstones: REGARD, DEAREST, and the private ones nobody else could read.
6 min read
Mourning and memorial jewelry explained
Jet, hairwork and black enamel: how the Victorians wore their grief, and how to buy it well.
6 min read
Lockets and keepsake jewelry
A jewel with an inside. What went into a Victorian locket, and what to check before you buy one.
6 min read
Birthstone meanings
Where the modern birthstone list comes from, and what each stone has traditionally stood for.
6 min read
Written in the workshop
Everything here is written by the people who buy and restore these pieces
No stock copy and no invented history: if a fact is not on the piece or in its paperwork, we say so.
From the reading to the piece
