Jewellery, like other fashion items, changes with the times. What is considered to be ‘in’ one year might be outdated the next, making it difficult to keep up with the trends. One way to bypass this is by owning a few pieces of vintage jewellery, which with their timeless designs can continue to impress season after season, year after year. If the vintage jewellery you have bought in the past or has been passed down to you is not really in keeping with your style, we can help with jewellery remodelling to transform your heirlooms into something contemporary just for you.

What is vintage jewellery?

In the jewellery industry, we tend to describe items of jewellery that were made between 50 and 100 years ago as vintage pieces. Currently this includes anything from the art deco period, which is easily noticeable from it’s bold straight lines and geometric patterns. Vintage jewellery should not be confused with antique jewellery, which describes pieces which are over 100 years old.

How do you know if your jewellery is vintage?

If you are lucky enough to have had a piece of jewellery passed down to you, or can ask the original owner about where it came from then you will have not only the approximate age of the piece, but also its story and relevance. If, however, you have been given or purchased some jewellery and are unsure what period it originated from then you could take it to a jeweller for them to age. There are also a few tips you can try to point you in the right direction:

• Look for hallmarks and marks – these are usually inside a ring or on the back of an earring or bracelet. Use a magnifying glass to identify items such as the townmark, which tells you where the item was hallmarked and tested, the date letter and the standard mark which tells you the type of metal from which the item was made. You can find more information on this by searching online, or take the item to your local jeweller for an age appraisal.
• Look at the colours and designs – we know that bold colours and geometric lines are synonymous with the art deco period of the 1920s, whilst colours were sombre during the Victorian era whilst the queen mourned the death of her husband. 
• Look at the materials used – whilst it can be difficult for the untrained eye to spot, if you can decipher the materials used in your jewellery items, it might help you to date them. For example the retro jewellery created during the second world war was inexpensive due to a lack of materials so plastic, rhinestone and glass were used, giving birth to the costume jewellery that is still used for everyday wear today.

What if you don’t own any vintage jewellery?

If you don’t own any vintage jewellery or have some items that you don’t really want to wear, why not create your own piece? Using jewellery remodelling, we can create something very special for you out of existing items. For example, you might have a ring with a missing jewel, that even if you could replace it, is not in a style that you would want to wear. In this case we might suggest ring remodeling to create a new, more modern design that suits your personality and tastes, or we could remodel it into a pair of earrings. It doesn’t have to be one item either, we can take several rings or items of jewellery and remodel them into one piece for you. That way, you can keep the vintage jewellery feel of your aged pieces but in a beautiful, contemporary design that now has its own special story.

Looking for the best vintage jewellery Birmingham can offer?

You don’t have to travel far from the city centre and the hustle and bustle of the high street to find Allen Brown Jewellery and our remodelling workshop at the Heart of the Country. Here we can transform something old into something new, taking the gems and metals from your vintage jewellery pieces and creating something contemporary and unique to you. In doing so, you are also creating your own timeless pieces that can be worn, enjoyed and handed down with a little bit of our expertise woven into their stories!

Why not find out more about remodelling your vintage jewellery into something new by calling in to our Heart of the Country store or calling us on 01543 481948.