Why we photograph every hallmark

A hallmark photograph is never the most attractive image on a product page. It is a close, unglamorous shot of tiny stamped marks, often worn, sometimes only partly legible, taken under strong light so nothing is hidden.

We take it anyway, on every piece that has a mark to show, because it is the closest thing to primary evidence we can offer without handing you the ring itself. A written description can say a piece is 18 karat gold with a French eagle's head mark. A photograph lets you check that for yourself.

It also keeps us honest. Writing a description from memory or from a general impression of a piece is easy; writing one that has to match a photograph anyone can zoom into is a different discipline. If a mark is faint or ambiguous, the photograph shows that too, rather than letting a confident sentence paper over it.

Not every piece has a mark worth photographing. Some older items were never stamped, and others have been polished or worn to the point of illegibility over a long life. In those cases we say plainly that no legible hallmark survives and explain what metal testing showed instead, rather than presenting a blank space as if it were an oversight.

For pieces with maker's marks that can be traced to a known workshop or jeweler, the hallmark photograph is often the single most useful image on the page, more informative to a serious buyer than any styled shot of the piece being worn.

This habit costs us time. Macro photography under proper light takes longer to set up than a simple product shot, and pieces with hard to reach marks, inside a ring shank or under a brooch pin, take longer still. We think that time is well spent.

During a video viewing, our specialists will usually turn a piece so you can see the mark yourself under a loupe, live, in addition to the photograph already on the page. Between the two, you are working from the same evidence we used to write the description in the first place.