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Welcome to the forum Bryce!!

You wife is a lucky woman indeed as this piece is absolutely wonderful!!

I formed my own conclusions when you first posted this beauty last night, but did not post them so as to not confuse the issue if I was wrong. I am proud to say I did pretty good, but there is no way on earth I could have given you the history & background that @Any Jewelry & @kyratango have given you.

My question for the jewelry gurus is what would you recommend to polish up the bird & other silver accents on this piece? Obviously any type of silver cleaner is out of the question. A Sunshine cloth would not be much better as it would likely catch on all of the prongs & embellishments that are on this piece.

 

@Any Jewelry @kyratango
Thank you for a very interesting conversation.

Many points of interesting knowledge shared. Particularly the bit about European jewelers moving to Australia.

 

Excellent question!
I have a... Cosmetic answer
After a good wash in soapy water, rinsed and thoroughly dryed, I use foundation brushes like those (bought cheap in lot of 10 on Wish!) to rub of the tarnish, one has a very little silver polishing cream on it and I finish the job with another clean one.
The one with polish will turn black, and kept as is can still be used on other pieces which has slight tarnish.

Those very thin and dense artificial hairs are very soft and won't catch in the prongs

 

I bought it from an antique dealer who was going to scrap it. It weighs approximately 21 grams, not counting the two pieces of glass. I paid $750 for it as a Valentine's Day present. My wife is now worried I paid too much since it may not be gold. Did I? I really like it myself, even missing the center dangle(?). Thanks for all the expertise.

 

You are asking people who like to buy cheap and resell.
However, people who deal in genuine antique jewelry do command those kind of prices. Undoubtedly your wife is well worth the price.

You liked it, your wife likes it, and it was a price you were willing to pay to keep your wife happy. I wouldn't think about it anymore than that.

 

As AJ told you this piece is mid-1800's, so you are likely not going to find another one any time soon. It is a gorgeous piece of antique jewelry with what appears to be superb craftsmanship. I would venture to say that most of the jewelry hoarders would absolutely love to add it to their hoard. As Pat said, we are a fairly cheap group who hunt for bargains that we can resell, but personally I think you'll be fine. Hopefully there is a younger person in your family that you are close to that you can eventually hand it down to. I would suggest you copy some of the information AJ & kyratango gave you to also pass down so that they will understand how special this piece is to have survived 150 years.

BTW a pox on the dealer who was going to scrap this piece!!!!

@kyratango - That is an absolutely wonderful suggestion!!

I will have to look for some of those brushes on-line.

 

Good advice. I have descriptions, value, provedence, etc written down for all our old stuff! It will make life easier for our heirs.

 

Ooh, that's so pretty!.

 

Lol, I played the same game!.
I guessed 1860 and Austrian-Hungarian so I'm chuffed I'm beginning to get the basics. I'm so far off knowing the rest of the information it's out of sight but fantastic to learn from the experts. Now to work on actually remembering it......

 

I guessed 1870, but that was based on American designs rather than European, and the birds were hot here later than in Europe.

I'd go old school. To clean the silver I'd use a good old finger. Yep. Finger. The acids in skin remove tarnish just fine. If you can get a thumb in there, you're golden. Or silver-in as the case may be.