What inspires people to collect jewelry with noble provenance, or great history, are all the jewels themselves. And each individual is going to form a very different collection. To me, gemstones have soul. I think it’s that, that I find so inspiring. Jewels are works of art. It is really a way of opening your mind to different moments in history.
The more you collect, the more you learn about your jewels. It is a very, very rewarding process.
The first suggestion is to buy what you like. There is no point in buying something because somebody tells you that particular type of Jewel is fashionable. It’s very much this personal aspect that makes it so interesting. I mean, you can show a lady 55 pairs of earrings and she’ll pick one and why she picked that particular one is for her and her alone to understand.
It’s buried deeply within our unconscious, but I think it’s very important in the beginning is to take very good advice. I f you’re starting a collection or if you’re building a collection, I think that quality is essential. By the best that your economic situation allows. So maybe you reduce in size, if you’re buying diamond jewelry, but retain the quality.
I think that the first and most important thing is the look, the Jewel has to look at you and say, wow, I’m really the perfect example. Look at the history of the Jewel or its provenance. I mean, one of the highlights of recent years, is the collection of royal jewels from the Volvo and Palmer family, which sold in 2018, you know, as arguably one of the most important events of antique jewelers in the last hundred years, the fact that Marie Antoinette owned a particular pair of earrings in this collection.
I love to talk about the signature. As you talk of signatures on a painting or a sculpture, everybody dreams of a Van Cliff signature on a piece of jewelry. The signature will make an enormous difference at the same level of quality.
Now, the great thing about the great auctions of jewelry is the sheer volume of pieces that you’ll find, you know, from the great to the small. The appreciation of vintage jewels is something relatively new to the wide public. Even in our part of the world part, the more and more we have seen this becoming a trend that elsewhere there are market, for example, mainland China, where we’ve already noticed a massive increase in jewelry collections. Bring in your pieces to Judy’s Jewelry Antique and Estate Jewelry for an honest evaluation.
