How We Estimate the Age of our Pieces.

Probably the most common question we get is how do we know the pieces on the site are the age range we specify. Being that the pieces range from 50 to over 100 years old, obviously, the original receipt is long gone.

What we do is to try to establish a probability curve around the era that we believe the piece represents. Given that metal, rhinestones, plastics, beads and other manufacturing materials have been use consistently through out the decades, we look at a variety of factors to try and determine where in time the center of that probability curve lies.

Some of the factors we consider when making a determination of age include:

Provenance: Are there any records or original owner input associated with a collection or a single piece? Obviously, this helps tremendously when dating pieces. Items like the original packaging, cards that came with a gift, and dated materials that pertain to it are the holy grail of dating a piece. Although rare with vintage costume jewelry, we do come across it from time to time, mostly in the form of original packaging.

Patina: This is a fine coating of oxide on metal that only comes with age. The green patina on the statue of liberty's bronze metal is a common example. This is almost impossible to replicate and is one of the strongest indicators of advanced age. Basically, a good rule of thumb is that if it looks too new, it probably is.

Design: Each decade has its own unique offering of styles and colors. For example, an aurora borealis, multi-string rhinestone necklace is most common in the 1950's and almost unheard of in the 1920's. 1970's pieces tend towards being heavier, with larger chunks of material and interlaced colors. 

Strategic Wear: This refers to wear and tear where you would most likely expect it. We look closely at the clasps, joints and high points of each piece. We expect to find this, and, typically, the older a piece is the more wear and tear we find at these strategic attachment and material contact points.

Material Type: Some materials are more popular in certain decades. As an example, rhinestones have been used throughout the time span we represent but the types, sizes and layout changes drastically from the smaller stones set in tight clusters during the 1920's to the larger and more opulent use of them during their heyday in the 1950's. With metal, the thickness diminished over the decades, from heavy pot metal on the majority of the pieces in the 1920s to the light, stamped alloys of the 1960's and 1970's.

Weight: As a general rule of thumb, the heavier a piece is the older it is. As time went on manufacturing processes improved and retailers found they could make more pieces with less material. Generally speaking, items made from the 1970's on tend to be thin in material and light of feel when holding pieces made earlier in the 20th century.

To summarize, dating pieces is not an exact science. We use a combination of the above criteria to best determine what era the piece comes from. Obviously, we can't guarantee the age of a piece exactly unless we have the original paperwork. That said, our century plus of combined experience gives us confidence that the bell curve of probability will be centered pretty close to the original age.