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Category Archives: Estate Jewelry

Jeweler’s Ingenuity or Camouflage

Monday, May 7, 2012

In the course of buying estate jewelry, we run across some very interesting and unusual pieces- witness this necklace that appears to be a rather ordinary Star 0f David, embellished with center round brilliant diamond and single cut diamonds on the points. We didn’t notice the mechanism when we bought the piece but later discovered [...]

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Liz Taylor’s Adventure with the Most Famous Pearl in the World

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Last year, after Elizabeth Taylor’s passing, the gem world was all abuzz with the upcoming auction of her famous jewelry collection. Noted auction house, Christie’s, New York would hold an evening sale, December 13, 2011. When all the bids were in, the sale fetched record amounts for most of her pieces, including almost $12,000,000 for [...]

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Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose– Diamonds!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

“Sunburst” descibes this new ring, a one-of-a-kind original design by Jim and Jenny Sweaney of Mardon Jewelers. The center diamond, just under I/2 ct, is a beautiful warm Fancy Yellow color that we’ve accented with a custom bezel of 18K yellow Harmony gold. The 14k white gold mounting supports six marquise brilliant diamonds that radiate sparkle and [...]

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Double Deco Delights

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of working with some outstanding vintage Art Deco jewelry. We appraised this wonderful diamond and black onyx ring which features two large Old European cut diamonds, both approximately 1 3/4 cts, both eye clean, near colorless and well matched. Imagine some flapper gal dancing the night away in a Roaring [...]

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Geneology in Silver-Restoring a Family Bracelet

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

  Wife Kaye recently worked with a local family to renovate this heirloom bracelet, composed of sterling silver panels, strung on a ribbon, each hand engraved with the initials of a family member. Judging by the style, the bracelet probably was started around the late 1800′s or so– the most recent person on the bracelet [...]

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Repairing Broken Hearts and Broken Diamonds

Friday, September 9, 2011

    Our client sadly thought this family heirloom .96 ct. Old European cut diamond had little or no value– after years of wear, it had been cherished almost to death and looked like it had been through the garbage disposal. Mardon to the rescue! A close inspection in our gemological microscope revealed that while [...]

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Mr. Beep Beep-Vintage Road Runner Pin

Friday, August 12, 2011

  We just acquired this wonderful vintage gold pin, exuberant with whimsy and imagination. If you have ever seen an actual roadrunner running along, you know that in addition to moving their feet very quickly, they also bob their long tail up and down to catch their balance. Ours does too!

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Vintage Modernist Munsteiner Jewel

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Want to own a piece of historical art jewelry? We are pleased to showcase this wonderful handmade Modernist brooch/pendant of 18k yellow gold set with diamonds and a fabulous red fantasy cut tourmaline weighing 10.05 carats, created by the brilliant lapidary artist, Bernd Munsteiner.

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Appraising Fancy Color Diamonds

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

We just appraised this beautiful bright yellow ~2 ct. round diamond for a client. She had inherited the stone, which was accompanied by an appraisal from a gemologist which described it as a “Canary Yellow” diamond, which implied but didn’t state specifically that the stone was natural-color. Our client said the diamond had originally been [...]

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A Sweet Piece of L’ Art Nouveau

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Every now and then, we see vintage jewelry that really excites us. Recently, while working with a client on her new custom ring, we were discussing what to do with some pieces of jewelry that she doesn’t use anymore. We buy cast off and damaged jewelry to recycle, as well as consigning resalable pieces. As [...]

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