Our Vintage & Antique Jewelry Blog

We’re excited to introduce Beth Bernstein, author of the new book, If These Jewels Could Talk: The Legends Behind Celebrity Gems. Beth is a gifted writer and jewelry expert, whose passion has introduced her to a world of fabulous jewels and people.  She shares her wisdom through numerous articles, design, and jewelry consulting. Her previous two books are My Charmed Life: Rocky Romances, Precious Family Connections and Searching For a Band of Gold and Jewelry’s Shining Stars: Shaping Today’s Collectibles and Tomorrow’s Heirlooms.

We’re positively swooning over the beautiful gowns that debuted at the Bridal Week Fall 2016 shows. After obsessively poring over each collection, we identified three trends and created wedding jewelry looks to compliment them. We started by highlighting our newest cache of green rings (emeralds and demantoid garnets!) and then let the dresses lead the way.

Some have called him the “Faberge of our time” or likened him to Verdura, Bulgari, or Tiffany. But the reclusive jeweler JAR is a unique artist in his own right, with a stunning eye for design, detail, and construction.

Joel A. Rosenthal grew up in the Bronx and spent his childhood soaking in the atmosphere of New York, visiting museums and gaining a love of art and history. After graduating from Harvard in 1966, he moved to Paris and met his lifelong partner, Pierre Jeannet. Sharing a passion for beautiful objects, they opened a specialty needlepoint shop, where Rosenthal painted canvasses, selected yarns, and experimented with the rich color palette for which he’d soon become known. In 1976, Rosenthal and Jeannet opened their jewelry boutique, JAR, on Place Vendome, side by side with the most storied jewelers in the world. From the start, he was confident that his designs and craftsmanship would be as sought after as those of his neighbors.

Our third holiday gift guide features some of the most spectacular pieces in our collection, including historically important jewelry from the Georgian, Victorian, and Art Deco periods and incredible colored gemstones and diamonds. Each carefully selected jewel is a once in a lifetime gift and will quickly become her favorite statement piece.

This week is our celebration of October’s birthstones, opal and tourmaline, and you may be wondering why we’re featuring a diamond engagement ring. We always love a colored stone engagement ring, and both opal and tourmaline are some of the most colorful out there! However, both are soft stones, especially opals, and we don’t recommend them for hard, everyday wear.