Antique engagement ring & wedding bands?
Q.I'm planning on "proposing" to my ladyfriend (i.e. we've talked about getting married and would both like to do so) and since she likes antique jewelry, I'm wondering if there is any potential for purchasing an antique [diamond] engagement ring and wedding bands. Does anyone have any ideas about the subject? At this point I'm just starting to look into the subject, so I'm not certain about price, etc...
A.Just call around jewelery stores adn antique stores and ask. We found a store in Philly that had a good selection of antique rings and we got a very nice one for under $1000. Of course if you are into the diamond thing, you won't want to do this because you pay more per carat. That of course is only if you've been taken in by the whole diamond propaganda thing in the first place. Oh I quite disagree! A good 10X hand lens (20X has a very small field of view and is hard for many folks to use) is absolutely indispensable when you are looking at all manner of antiques! In optics, you really do get what you pay for, so get a good one; I recommend Bausch and Lombe Hastings triplet. This will show most flaws in a diamond worth getting excited about, mainly inclusions and cracks. I use my lens for detecting repairs on pottery, and find as I get older I use it more and more! Experience, no doubt Talk about diamond propanda --have you seen the program on "the soon-be-gone PBS" about the cartel. When I married about 23 years ago, my husband said no diamond until Nelson Mandela is free and there is a black majority govenment in South Africa -- needless to say, some one in our house was getting uncomfortable. Then, he watched the cartel program. When I went to Amsterdam this past summer, I bought my own. Now he is off the hook, and still has a clear conscience. after spending two years working in the jewelry business I must say that antique rings have the most character, and style. Of course they can be expensive and there are something you are going to want to watch for. First...most of them are set either in white gold or platinum. You need to make sure to ask whomever you are buying the ring from what precious metal the ring is made out of...and if it was taken care of well you may be able to still see the stamp. A lot of older "antique" rings are cut (the diamond it self, the cut is what helps the ring shine because of the facets) in the old miners cut. This will cut down on shine or the brillance because there are not as many facets. You really should check out the yellow pages and then talk to jewelers. Make sure they scope the ring...A gem scope is very similar to a microscope, don't just let them "loop" it. This is a littel magnifying type glass that won't show any important flaws or cracks. You should ask them to explain what good color is and what a good clarity is. Honestly I could always give up on clarity a little if the color was really nice. After all who wants a yellow diamond? If there are florescent ligths you may want to ask if they can follow you out to some more natural lighting so you can get a better idea of what the ring really looks like. You also need to make sure the ring itself is in good repair. The band on the bottom shoudn't be too thin, because it can break easier. You need to make sure all of the stones are tight and set well, you also may need to look at tips and anything that surrounds the stones. Antique rings offer a lot of things I personally feel the newer settings can't. My engagement ring is not antique (but I don't like diamonds) but I do have my great grandmothers. The best thing to do is look at the ring section in Bride's or one of the other major magazines. They explain the four C's, cut, clarity, color, and I can't remember the last one. I probably should change the topic header, because this is definitely not dealing with rings, but I'd be interested in how a magnifier helps you detect pottery repairs. I've never actually thought about it before, and would love to have yet another tool in the arsenal for finding those ever-worrisome repairs (that I'm starting to see more and more of).
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