Dating items

 

We stock antique and vintage jewellery and dating these items can be difficult.  It is recognised that vintage items are over 20 years old, but how old?

 

The easy ones are the gold, silver or platinum items with legible hallmarks.  These can tell us the year and place the item was assayed and often include the makers mark. The makers mark may also vary according to the period and this can give us further details.

 

Some costume jewellery also contains the mark of the maker which can indicate when the item was made and this can be particularly useful if the marks changed over time.

 

Sarah Coventry was established in 1949 and its jewellery was most popular during the 1950s and 1960s, however the company went bankrupt in 1981.

 

Michaela Frey founded her jewellery company in Austria in 1851, the company is now under the ownership of Friedrich Willie who was a partner from 1972 and took sole ownership in 1992.

 

Sandor Goldberger was a costume jewellery manufacturer from 1938 to 1972, known mostly for his flower inspired jewellery.  Items are usually marked  'SANDOR' but  items made in 1939 and 1940 bore his whole name 'SANDOR GOLDBERGER' and items after 1955 also included copyright symbol.

 

Unmarked costume jewellery is the most difficult to date accurately. Sometimes the design of the piece is so typical of the period, e.g. 1960s and 1970s that it cannot be mistaken, but other pieces are not so obvious.

 

At L & L Jewellery we try to research each piece thoroughly and include our findings in the description. Where we have little information on the piece, we consider where we acquired it, other pieces obtained at the same time and its condition and we research similar pieces.  We do our best but cannot guarantee to be accurate all of the time.