Country Images Magazine North Edition July 2017 | Page 30

Antiques
DERBYSHIRE ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES
by Maxwell Craven
Modern collectibles
SIMPLE COSTUME JEWELLERY
Cubic zirconia (left ),
diamond (right):
spot the diff erence!
It was surrealist artist and natural-born showman Salvador Dali who said of costume
jewellery, ‘The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for
jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.’ Whilst
such sentiments are perhaps more glib than true, one can see where he’s coming
from. Costume jewellery is the sort of jewellery which looks fabulous when worn,
but is made, often by craftsmen of superb skill, of less than precious metals and set
with stones that are essentially affordable, not to mention glass imitations.
Furthermore, vintage costume jewellery is oft en almost as sought aft er as is
period jewellery of the highest quality, although at least it usually retains
its aff ordability. And, as with any other antique of collectible, quality is
everything, although condition is sometimes less than paramount, as modest
jewellery repairs can oft en be eff ected at a reasonable cost.
Th e most emphatic arbiter of such things is desirability: if you like a piece of
costume jewellery a lot, it will be worth the more to you. If you like it that
much, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone else will too and that’s
what sets the level of price when it comes to selling them, either privately or
White metal and past necklace:
abounding in brilliance and
sold for £28.
30 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk
at auction. However, fashion changes, and such things as brooches and even
pendants are currently less popular and therefore more aff ordable.
Once you have spotted something you really like the arbiters ar e: quality,
design and materials. Th e latter include a number of splendid eff ects
achieved through clever use of substitute materials. For instance, stones.
Since the eighteenth century it was particularly popular to use marcasite
instead of small (‘chip’) diamonds, and this revived in the Victorian era
and with Art Nouveau jewellery designers. In fact, when Prince Albert
died in 1861 Queen Victoria entered a period of mourning, requiring her
Th e natural world: two silver-mounted Blue John pendants,
an oval brooch, a faceted crystal and a matching bracelet and
brooch in American silver mounted with abalone shell.