It's National Cherish an Antique Day! A lot of what I do involves working with antique jewelry, family heirlooms, or older jewelry either for a repair or redesign service. I’m around antique jewelry all of the time, so I wanted to take a little bit of time today to talk about two antique jewelry stories that are near to my heart + interesting to me!
First and foremost, my family jewelry story. I want to talk a little bit today about everything going on this photo.
The portrait is of my great grandmother. Her name was Gwendolyn Eaton Rush…..I named my daughter Gwendolyn after her, and my son’s middle name is Rush. She was quite the Southern lady! She lived her whole life in Louisiana, loved jewelry and was a Flapper in the roaring 20’s! She had hazel eyes just like my daughter, too!
The necklace in the picture is one that I designed when my daughter was born. The chain means so much to me because my mentor made it by hand. I love oval diamonds and that is what is featured in the center of the pendant. I hope that one day Gigi will wear, too! The ring on the portrait is a delicate heirloom that represents another special woman in my life!
The next piece of jewelry has an old diamond in the center and has had a crazier story than most diamonds I know!
My client inherited the center diamond from her grandfather that won the stone in a poker tournament! The diamond also took a turn in the garbage disposal at one point leaving it with a damaged girdle. Poor diamond! I think it’s fair to say this is a pretty interesting diamond that deserved some love. It came to me in a six prong solitaire setting (which she never wore, pictured).
She wanted to put in a bezel setting to hide the damage to the girdle. If you look through the photos, you can see the CAD I designed for her new setting.
Her center stone is protected now and she has a gorgeous antique reproduction setting that suits her style perfectly!
There are SO many memories in one piece of jewelry. I ADORE listening to the stories that come along with my client’s jewelry. I really miss that one-on-one personal connection right now, with all of the Covid-19 precautions that we must take. It drives me and feeds my soul!
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about these jewelry pieces with interesting stories- thanks for stopping by!
