Featured Antique jewellery collectors: do you wear your collection?

When my parents passed away my sister was left a lot of my mother's jewelry. A lot was gold and precious stones. At the time she worked in a high school as their IT person. She wore the jewelry every day, gold, diamonds, rubies, sapphires. Everyone thought is was costume and she didn't say a thing

 

depends on what you paid for it.......... bold bars or coins are a better backup!

 

When I wear my gaudiest pieces I do try not to flaunt them in public spaces, but tell myself that if someone on the lookout for something to grab did see them, he would think they were fake.

 

I love to wear my antique jewelry! I have a bit of a thing for rings, I have too many but they are my favorite antique jewelry to wear. I also have lots of Czech glass necklaces which are something that I don't feel like I need to worry too much about, as long as the silk thread doesn't look too fragile (even better if they're on chain)! My other love is bug brooches, mostly costume. I work in a corporate environment so I just accessorize the hell outta my workwear

 

I wear too much jewelry but I blame my Cuban blood . Its a thing amongst my peoples ! I started wearing brooches in the 80s and still do. Though I bitterly regret selling the bulk of my brooch collection in the late 90s,but needs dictate. I dont know if yall remember that fire opal ring I had,but I wore it too much and broke the stone. If my jewelry is antique I will be more careful in the future. Ive been trying to get a gorgeous ruby ring my best friend inherited from his mother. Id guess its Victorian and that ruby is a good 2 carats. Alas,he wont give it up though I could wear it . Some people are just SO selfish !

 

I don't own a lot of really antique pieces, but do wear a lot of the 60s and 70s costume, and even older pins if the clasps are secure. One I do wear is a pre-WWII railroad switch key, on a 60s chain that looks like padlocks. No stones in that! The old family jewerly is mostly in my sister's safety deposit box.

For old stones in the USA, rhinestones anyway, joolies use E6000 hypocement. It dries clear. Not sure what I'd use on a real one.

 

I have no idea how many pieces of jewelry I own, but my husband and kids say its plenty.
I couldn't possibly wear them all, but I do wear nice old flemish jewels/gold/georgian whenever I feel like wearing it.
I used to be scared to wear the valuable things out and about, but a good friend once told me: 'nobody knows if its real. People just assume it must be fake'
So I started wearing what I like.
If something breaks, I get it fixed by a jeweler.
Collecting old jewelry implies you have to take care of it, and its not new so things will break sometimes.
Last year I had an old, delicate flemish brooch pinned to my winter coat during Autumn and Winter, and the poor thing survived heavy rain and storms (would not recommend that maybe...those close back foiled diamond are not meant to get soaked)

 

OTOH they surive water better than rhinestones would. Silver couldn't care less about water, but water kills rhinestone paint dead.

 

lately I've been selling off my gold and silver bracelets & rings..... but I'm left with my favourites ...that I will indeed continue to wear , when called for..

 

Bronwen asked me in the cameo thread if I ever wear my cameos and directed me here.
I do occasionally wear them and would do so more often if I wore the right type of clothing for such accessorizing. I'm typically in jeans and a T-shirt or, lately, a Liberty print blouse. Neither lends itself to cameo brooch-wearing as T's are too casual, and both are too easy to create permanent holes in the fabric. And as a healthcare worker, rings/necklaces/brooches are impractical and discouraged, and fancy earrings look odd with scrubs.
But when I do wear a cameo brooch, I typically use a soft plastic earring back on the pin. Then the brooch won't fall off if the clasp fails.

Is that the one you wore when we met at the Met? I remember how beautiful it was! I sometimes think of it and browse the net looking for similar... a pipe dream, I know!

 

I change out my jewelry depending on where I am going. But I have tons, some inherited, some from my husband. When I travel I bring a batch to give to my daughter in law & granddaughter. For everyday I am basic with my replacement wedding band, and a pendant of my Grandkids. I have one necklace I always worry when I wear that was my Grandmothers, so I started putting a safety pin through the latch & pin it to whatever I am wearing. I learned a hard lesson once I had a chain on & went to the dentist for a cleaning & halfway home I felt my neck & it was gone. I went back & the hygienist had an empty trash can. My dentist fired her - apparently I wasn't her first victim. They offered to replace the chain, it was my Grandfathers watch chain.

 

I can't recall whether or not I changed my rings that day. Are you thinking of my tiny pantheress? I have never managed to get a decent photo of her, but she's one of a type of animals on banded agate cabochons. This one is the same type:



My poor efforts:

 

I remember it being a dark brown w/whitish banded agate but I had been thinking it was a male head... gosh, now I'm not so sure!

 

I have no reason to dress like a grownup most days, so brooches are seldom appropriate. (When I start wearing 2 or 3 on my nightgown I really will be old.) Rings I wear all the time except when showering, usually the same ones unless I swap out the left hand one for something different. Rest of the time it's a silenus heading to the bacchanale with bunches of grapes hanging on each end of his shepherd's crook, intaglio on sort of a taupe quartz, probably late 18th - early 19th century. I have only one antique bracelet, which I wear from time to time. Very Wonder Woman:

 

remind me not to screw with you.... when you're wearing that one !!!!!!!

or....

" just take a little off the top please.! "

 

I used to wear my jewelry to class but I’m working from home currently so not many chances to hang out with them! But every time I go travel, I definitely grab one or two

 

I have a safety neck chain which I always wear together with my fancy necklaces for the same concern. I link them with safety pins and pray they won’t fall at same time!

 

I did same with my brooches, but I still don’t trust the mechanism, fearing the whole pin will get loose

 

99% of the time I myself is the jeweler I’m asking for help from guess it’s all same for old jewelry collectors to learn basic repair techniques, starting with glue

 

Shamster, basic repairs that include some paint/glue I will do myself. Some things need soldering or laser welding/ setting a nice diamond with new -howdoyou call it-thingy claw setting...those are the things I ask my jeweler.
I try to dress like an adult every time I go out the door to bring the kids to school/go grocery shopping...you never know who you are going to bump into