Antique Sage

Vintage Japanese Jewelry – Big in Japan

Vintage Japanese jewelry – like this elegant 1980s platinum, gold, sapphire and diamond brooch by Ito Hiroaki – is quickly finding an enthusiastic audience among jewelry lovers.

Vintage Japanese jewelry is sometimes overlooked by fine jewelry connoisseurs. I should know because for a long time I was one of the collectors doing the overlooking. Then, as I was browsing eBay a few months ago I unexpectedly fell in love. I had stumbled upon an exquisite 1980s Japanese brooch of superb workmanship and quality.

But before I talk about that, let’s take a brief detour through the history of Japanese jewelry.

For most of its history, Japan did not have jewelry in a modern sense. They did have ornamental objects crafted from precious materials, but these were nearly always functional items that had evolved to take on a broader prestige role in society. Examples include women’s hair pins and hair combs, koshirae (samurai sword fittings) and inro (hard-cased wallets meant to be worn with a kimono). Western jewelry forms such as earrings, pendants, bracelets or rings were nearly unknown in Japan during this time.

All of this changed once Japan ended feudalism and opened up to the broader world after the 1850s. The island nation was suddenly flooded with foreign ideas and influences. Western style jewelry was one of these new concepts. And although it took a few decades to get started, by the late 19th century Japanese craftsman had begun experimenting with jewelry as we understand it today.

The house of Mikimoto is perhaps the best known creator of vintage Japanese jewelry. Its founder, Kikuchi Mikimoto, created the first cultured pearl in 1893. He then opened a retail shop to sell his pearl jewelry in 1900. He also sent his artisans to Europe to study the latest advancements in jewelry making styles and techniques. His eponymous firm quickly became the largest pearl jewelry company in the world.

Japanese militarism in the 1930s and then World War II in the 1940s largely interrupted jewelry production, making Japanese pieces from this time period scarce. Likewise, Japan was still recovering from the devastation of the war throughout the 1950s. As a result, fine jewelry production at scale only really resumed in the 1960s, accelerating dramatically during the 1970s and 1980s to match the red-hot Japanese economy of the time. Therefore, most of the vintage Japanese jewelry you will find in the marketplace today dates from the 1960s or later.

In addition to Mikimoto, there are a handful of other well known vintage Japanese jewelry houses. Founded in 1954, Tasaki is a pearl-centric firm that produces excellent quality jewelry. Kyoto based atelier Niwaka has been creating treasures in gold and gemstones since 1983. Japanese Jeweler Ponte Vecchio had its origins in 1981 and is best known for its delicate, playful style.

There are also a number of smaller independent Japanese jewelry studios in addition to those listed above. A short (but not exhaustive) list of these artistic luminaries includes: Nobuko Ishikawa, Ito Hiroaki, Sachi Fukuhara, Koji Iwakura, Shunichi Tamura, Keiko Ikeda, Mitsuo Kaji and Ayano Kanazawa. Vintage jewelry produced by these independents will tend to be a bit more adventuresome compared to the larger Japanese jewelry firms.

Japanese craftsmen are renowned as masters of the miniature, possessing excellent attention to detail. This defining national characteristic is reflected in their jewelry making, which is often both precise in execution and striking in design. In any case, Japanese fine jewelry is almost always of the highest quality, with clean metal work and quality materials.

Organic or natural themes – leaves, flowers, insects, fruits, animals, etc. – are ubiquitous among vintage Japanese jewelry. Keeping in line with the Modernist ethos that has dominated jewelry design from circa 1960 to the present, simple geometric or abstract elements are also commonly encountered. You’ll sometimes find traditional Japanese metalworking techniques/alloys such as shakudō (a dark-patinaed copper-gold alloy) or mokume-gane (different metal alloys layered together to create a wood-grain pattern) employed in vintage pieces, too.

Now that we’ve covered Japanese jewelry history, let’s revisit that stunning 1980s Japanese brooch that caught my eye on eBay.

Fabricated in 900 fine platinum and 18 karat yellow gold by respected Japanese jeweler Ito Hiroaki, the brooch features an oval ring with a hanging cluster of cabochon cut sapphire grapes accented by small brilliant-cut diamonds. It is clear at a glance that this vintage Japanese brooch is more a work of art and less a mere piece of jewelry. The workmanship of the brooch is nothing short of exquisite – a fact highlighted by several distinct features of the piece.

Photo Credit: JapanDesigners

These marketing materials show Ito Hiroaki’s rather extravagant “Basic Line” of jewelry from 1985.

The heavy gauge platinum oval ring possesses a uniquely textured surface and is richly festooned with ropes of gold. According to original marketing material from circa 1985, this brooch was part of a suite of jewelry Ito released to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the development of his signature “Mellow Gold” metalsmithing technique.

The luscious grape cluster that sits invitingly at the bottom of the brooch is actually articulated, meaning it moves independently from the main body of the piece. This allows the grape cluster to swing with the movements of the wearer, causing the gemstones to effortlessly reflect any ambient light.

Designing and crafting articulated jewelry is a time consuming process that most jewelry makers avoid. The last time (and only time, to the best of my knowledge) such a technique was in widespread use was during the mid-19th century when tremblers – brooches meant to quiver with the slightest movement – were popular among the wealthy. These trembler brooches were invariably diamond-studded affairs set in lavish silver-topped gold settings. You can just imagine how expensive they were; commoners need not apply.

The bezel set gemstones used in this masterpiece of vintage Japanese jewelry are also top-notch. While not more than about 1/4 carat each, the midnight blue natural sapphire cabochons are of excellent quality: flawless, intensely hued and well-cut. In addition they are perfectly matched for color, clarity and cut – a factor that significantly boosts the value of even seemingly modest stones. Their total weight is also significant at 1.18 carats.

It is meaningful that we know the exact carat weight of the sapphires even though they are still mounted in the piece. This is because Ito Hiroaki was thorough enough to stamp the carat weight of the gems used in the brooch alongside the standard platinum and gold purity hallmarks. This is yet another sign of quality and attention to detail.

The small diamonds that accent the sapphire grape cluster are completely clean and white. It is well known among jewelers that white metals like platinum, palladium and white gold are very unforgiving in regards to the color of any diamonds mounted in them. When slightly yellowish or brownish diamonds are mounted in yellow gold it is hardly noticeable, but such a cost-cutting measure becomes immediately obvious in platinum.

However, there was no such cost-cutting here.

Designer Vintage Japanese Jewelry for Sale on eBay

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It is also notable that the piece drips with sapphires and diamonds and not lesser stones. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, even mid-range fine jewelry heavily relied on the big four gemstones (diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires) to achieve a luxurious appearance. However, by the 1980s (when this brooch was produced) it was more common for jewelers to embrace lower value stones in an attempt to control costs. This led to the rise of peridot, tourmaline, red garnet, blue topaz and other second tier stones in cost-conscious jewelry of the time. Happily, this is much less common in vintage Japanese jewelry where creators like Ito Hiroaki stuck to the highest end materials available.

As a result, this vintage brooch is true extraordinary.

And here’s the best part: I paid less than $1,000 for this fantastic piece. In fact I paid substantially less than $800. Although it was originally listed for $757.05, the seller (Greeber Japan) was having a 15% off sale across their entire eBay store. So I snagged this absolute designer jewel from the mid-1980s for a stunningly low $643.49.

Let’s slow down and think about that price for a moment.

Here is a gorgeous piece of vintage Japanese jewelry from the heyday of Japan’s glorious 1980s cultural apogee. This was the time when Sony and Nintendo ruled the world. This was the time when the Imperial Palace grounds in Tokyo were worth more than all the real estate in California. This was the time when Japanese anime burst onto the international scene with classics like Bubblegum Crisis, Ranma 1/2 and Akira. This was the Japan of perpetual nightlife, over-the-top parties and endless money.

Tokyo during the 1980s represented our glorious cyberpunk future, as shown in this YouTube video compilation:

So why was I able to buy a gem-studded piece of designer vintage Japanese jewelry from this mythical era for less than $700?

One of the things I always do before purchasing a piece of vintage jewelry is calculate its price per gram. I know from experience that if you pay less than $100 per gram for a piece of gem-set, solid karat gold or platinum jewelry, you’ve done well. This rule of thumb excludes low karat gold pieces (like 9 and 10 karat) and very common gemstones such as amethyst, citrine, small pearls and blue topaz. In this case, I paid around $57 per gram.

How is finding a bargain this good even possible? Is the vintage Japanese jewelry market broken?

I have a few theories about that.

First, demand for fine jewelry has been generally suppressed in the developed world ever since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 – 2009. This is because the world has been living through a depression for the last decade plus. Slow job and wage growth has combined with an ever upward spiraling cost of living to eviscerate most households’ discretionary purchasing power. Fine jewelry purchases must compete with exorbitant rents, utilities, grocery bills and car payments – a battle it rarely wins.

As a result, we still see fairly robust jewelry sales in the sub-$250 price range as most people have moved down-market. Sales in the $10,000 and up luxury price range have also held up because the wealthy are still doing well financially. But fine jewelry in the middle market, priced between approximately $250 and $10,000, has been left for dead – a doughnut hole attributable to the Silent Depression we have all been living through these past years.

Estate Mikimoto, Tasaki, Niwaka & Ponte Vecchio Jewelry for Sale on eBay

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Another reason my vintage Japanese jewelry find was so affordable is that brooches are hopelessly out of fashion right now. There is an entire category of vintage and antique jewelry – brooches, stick pins, tie tacks, hair combs, tiaras and cufflinks – that I call fashion refugees. These are types of jewelry that are rarely worn today because they are out of step with current trends in fashion.

While some of these forms of jewelry will probably never come back into style (tiaras are likely dead forever), I feel very strongly that brooches are an exception. Brooches are one of the five basic jewelry forms alongside rings, bracelets, earrings and necklaces. This alone almost ensures a renaissance for them at some future date.

But for now brooches are the red-headed step-child of the vintage fine jewelry market. Brooches look best on lapels, collars and straps – more formal feminine attire. Today’s extremely informal fashion for sweaters and t-shirts do not play to their strength. That means that there is a healthy supply of vintage pieces on the market and limited demand.

This drives prices down, creating bargains for the discerning vintage Japanese jewelry buff.

Photo Credit: Greeber Japan

This stunning vintage Japanese brooch by designer Nobuko Ishikawa is rendered in platinum, gold, diamonds and chrysoprase.

The third reason my vintage Japanese brooch was so affordable was due to the ridiculously low price of platinum. As I write this, platinum is trading for about $1,000 a troy ounce, which is the exact same price it was selling for back in 2006. That means platinum is priced at same level it was 18 years ago!

Can you name any other precious material that has stagnated in price for so long? Silver is up 154% over that time period. Gold is up around 262%. Even colored gemstones – which have moved sideways in price since 2015 – are still up by 76% from 2006.

Remember, for the entirety of the 20th century and into the beginning of the 21st century platinum had always traded at a premium to gold. It is only within the past 10 years or so that this normal relationship has been inverted. This means that although platinum has traditionally been treated as the very finest of jewelry metals, it has recently been displaced by white gold when a white look is required.

This pricing anomaly in platinum gives jewelry collectors a golden opportunity to buy vintage and antique platinum jewelry for absurdly low prices. And because the Japanese people have a strong affinity for platinum, it is commonly found in higher end vintage Japanese jewelry. So I don’t find it very difficult to envision a future where platinum is once more priced at a premium to gold – with platinum jewelry regaining its ultra luxury status. If this happens, vintage platinum jewelry will adjust upward in price rather quickly and violently.

The final reason for vintage Japanese jewelry being undervalued is really quite unexpected. In the summer of 2024, the Japanese yen – U.S. dollar exchange rate hit a 34-year low of 160 yen to the dollar. The last time the yen was this weak was briefly during 1990 and only on a sustained basis before 1987!

And because Japanese estate jewelry sellers’ costs are priced in yen, it means that your dollar goes further when converted to Japanese yen. Their rent is priced in yen, their labor costs are priced in yen and even their utility costs are priced in yen. As a result, they will often accept a lower dollar price if it gives them a similar or even higher yen price.

Let’s take the 1980s Japanese brooch I purchased as an example. The price of $643.49 translates into just short of ¥103,000, assuming an exchange rate of 160 yen to the dollar. But five years ago during 2019, that same $643.49 would have only been worth about ¥70,000. This is because the yen/dollar exchange ratio was closer to 108 to 1 at the time.

So it’s easy to see how a Japanese seller might be motivated to accept a smaller number of dollars (or euros) today. This gives lovers of vintage Japanese jewelry with access to non-yen hard currencies a special opportunity to buy fine pieces at deep discounts.

It took a confluence of these four factors I just mentioned for me to be able to purchase my exquisite piece of vintage Japanese jewelry at a sub-$1,000 price. There is simply no way the price would have been this low under normal circumstances. In fact, I suspect that if these four factors hadn’t been present, a reasonable price for my brooch would have been somewhere in the $2,500 to $3,000 range.

Now all of this might be a bad thing if you are looking to sell fine vintage Japanese jewelry, but if you are looking to buy it is truly wondrous. I got an insane 75% discount from the fair value of the 1980s Japanese brooch I purchased. And if I find any more great bargains I’ll happily snap them up, too. I’m sure many other smart collectors are looking to do the same.

Fine Jewelry from Greeber Japan for Sale on eBay

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If you are interested in starting or adding to a collection of fine vintage Japanese jewelry I do have a few pointers. Cufflinks and brooches – both fashion refugees – will give you your best bang for the buck. But if you intend to wear the piece you buy, make certain it is a type of jewelry you like. In other words, don’t buy a brooch just because it is cheaper if you hate brooches.

Next, consider purchasing vintage Japanese jewelry that is made out of platinum or mixed karat gold and platinum. Only higher end pieces were fabricated from these metals and you are sure to get a bargain. Of course, 14 karat or higher solid gold jewelry is excellent, too. 18 karat is the most commonly encountered gold alloy in Japan, so purity is rarely a problem. Sterling silver (or mixed sterling and karat gold) is also perfectly acceptable as long as the piece is both impressive and rendered in a good Modernist style.

It is always nice when you can find vintage jewelry set with one or more of the big four gemstones: diamonds, rubies, emeralds or sapphires. I would try to shoot for a minimum total weight of more than 1 carat, with each individual stone weighing at least 10 points. These requirements are harder to meet than you might think at first. But if the piece you love is set with second tier gems (tourmaline, tanzanite, fancy garnet, opal, spinel, jade, etc.) fear not – these can also be excellent finds if the price is right (and the stones are large enough).

Above all, make certain you skew towards quality.

Ideally we want signed pieces that have been painstakingly hand fabricated by a known firm or artist. Always flip the piece over to view the back. It should look almost as good as the front, without any unsightly blobs of metal, rough surfaces, damage or other distracting features. Any vintage Japanese jewelry you consider should simply ooze quality, possessing a combination of high end materials, fine craftsmanship and original design.

Pricing will generally start at $400 per piece, escalating quickly if larger, more valuable gemstones are present.

Vintage Japanese jewelry is one of the great undiscovered bargains of the fine jewelry world right now. And the fact that the Japanese yen is plumbing 40 year lows versus the dollar just makes the deals even sweeter.

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage gems & jewelry articles here.

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Read in-depth Antique Sage vintage jewelry investment guides here.

Collecting Antique Jewelry for Profit

Collecting antique jewelry can be both fun and profitable. For example, this Modernist 14 karat white gold ring set with a chunky 2.4 carat rhodolite garnet and flanked by two brilliant cut diamonds perfectly encapsulates the go-go years of the 1970s.

What is the best way to collect antique jewelry for those with an eye toward future investment return? Now there’s something to be said for the simple, pure joy of owning a piece of old jewelry just because you love it. But if we’re going to be laying down hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for a vintage piece, it is good to have some assurance that we’ll be able to recoup our investment down the road.

Before we get started on the best ways to collect antique jewelry for profit, I want to lay out some important ground rules.

I am only discussing fine jewelry in this article. I define fine jewelry as being made of 14 karat or higher purity gold. I’m not a big fan of lower karat gold alloys. Platinum and palladium are also excellent fine jewelry metals, although you’ll probably never run into the latter metal in a vintage piece. I believe sterling silver may be used in fine jewelry, but only within the context of the Modernist (circa late 1950s to the present), Brutalist (circa 1960 to 1980) or Arts & Crafts (circa 1880 to 1910) movements.

In other words, costume jewelry is outside the scope of this article. If you are in doubt as to whether a piece is costume or not just remember this handy tip: costume jewelry pretends to be more valuable than it actually is; fine jewelry does not.

So for example, a mass-produced 1940s Retro brooch by Trifari may be made of vermeil (gold plating over sterling silver) set with clear rhinestones. This is clearly imitating a solid karat gold brooch set with diamonds – a far more expensive piece. Our hypothetical Trifari brooch is clearly a piece of costume jewelry.

In contrast, a hand-fabricated 1960s Modernist Scandinavian bracelet may be crafted from solid sterling silver set with smoky quartz cabochons. This piece of jewelry is meant to stand alone as a work of art for your wrist. It is not attempting to imitate more valuable materials and is therefore a piece of fine jewelry in its own right.

I also want to make it clear that you always want to buy high quality jewelry – pieces that reflect both good craftsmanship and good zeitgeist. Zeitgeist is the term I use for jewelry that does a good job of embodying the design principles of its era. You want your Art Deco jewelry to be geometric and streamlined. Likewise, you want your Victorian jewelry to be chunky, ornate and bold.

The workmanship of a piece can’t be overlooked either. There is plenty of 14 karat and 18 karat gold vintage jewelry out there that was mass-produced to an inferior standard. This substandard jewelry may have blobs of excess solder, bulky prongs or paper-thin metal (to save on weight). It may also be set with cheap and poorly cut – albeit genuine – stones. Even if it is legitimately old, such jewelry is only fit for the melting pot and should be avoided at all costs.

Now let’s continue on to the main topic.

1) Collecting Antique Jewelry by Theme

First on our list is collecting antique jewelry by theme. The wonderland of subject matter to choose from is so diverse as to be mind boggling.

For example, you could concentrate on jewelry with an animal theme – cats, dogs, horses, dolphins, insects, birds, etc. You could even specialize in mythological animals if you cared to. Animals have been perennially popular in antique jewelry straight from antiquity right up until the present day.

Another possibility would be sports. The vintage jewelry market is overflowing with fine example paying homage to tennis, golf, bowling, baseball, basketball, football and soccer, among others. Simply pick the sport you like best (or collect them all as a “sports generalist” jewelry aficionado)!

Transportation is another favorite motif. This encompasses cars, trains, airplanes, ships and even stagecoaches. What makes this area of vintage jewelry collecting so fascinating is that 20th century society was absolutely obsessed with speed. Whether it was a Stutz Bearcat sports car or a Pan Am Clipper airplane, the faster it went, the sexier it was.

Of course, if you find a particular subject matter too limiting, you can always collect antique jewelry by type. For instance, you could focus on just purchasing bracelets, pendants, rings or brooches. Or you could delve into more obscure areas like stickpins, cameos or mourning jewelry. The hobby can be whatever you want it to be.

A final theme would be to collect old jewelry by era. If you really love the look of a particular time period, this may be the way to go. Do you adore long flowing hair and idealistic naturalism? Then 1890s Art Nouveau jewelry is your fix. Do you admire sleek lines and bold geometric forms? Then 1920s Art Deco is your answer. Do you long for organic abstraction? Then 1960s Modernist is your ambition.

Photo Credit: AnotherSkyVintage

This slightly whimsical Edwardian era owl stickpin is from the first decade of the 20th century. By cleverly combining multi-colored white, rose and yellow gold with old European cut diamonds for eyes, it achieves a stunning effect. With an asking price below $1,000, this stickpin is not only a superb example of highly collectible animal-themed antique jewelry, but is also a good investment piece.

I believe that collecting vintage jewelry by theme has perhaps the most potential in today’s market. Old jewelry sporting desirable themes is highly collectible in my opinion, with a vast pool of interested buyers. It is certainly the most flexible approach. There are good quality examples available for just a few hundred dollars, or even a bit less if you get lucky.

The downside of collecting antique jewelry by theme is that there is almost too much choice. You will have to do the legwork involved in winnowing out lower quality pieces in order to find that one gem hidden among the dregs. It does represent an easy entry point into the field of vintage jewelry collecting, but some experience will be necessary in order to achieve true proficiency.

2) Collecting Antique Jewelry by Intrinsic Value

The second avenue to collect antique jewelry is by intrinsic value. This technique involves only purchasing vintage jewelry that is priced close to the underlying value of its component parts. Another term for intrinsic value is scrap value. One way to visualize this is to imagine taking apart a specific piece of jewelry until all we have left are piles of loose gemstones and precious metals. If these resulting precious materials were sold as scrap, they would represent the intrinsic value of a piece.

However, I want to emphasize that we never intend to disassemble fine antique or vintage jewelry for its scrap value; it is always worth far more in its original form. Nonetheless, intrinsic value remains a valuable concept for the jewelry collector or investor.

Under normal circumstances it is impossible to purchase a piece of fine vintage jewelry for less than its intrinsic value. The market simply doesn’t price good quality antique jewelry at or below the value of its component parts. In fact, I believe that double intrinsic value is a good starting price point for old fine jewelry. In other words, you’ve gotten a good deal if the intrinsic value of a piece is 50% (or more) of the price you pay.

One downside to the intrinsic value method of buying antique jewelry is that it can be difficult to properly estimate the scrap value of gemstones. Some gems (like natural rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds) can be very valuable – up to thousands of dollars per stone – while others (like citrines, blue topazes, amethysts and moonstones) can be worth almost nothing – a dollar a stone or even less. And this doesn’t even take into account the fact that synthetic stones (which usually have no intrinsic value at all) have been regularly mounted in jewelry since circa 1900! So there is definitely a subjective element to estimating the value of a gem-studded piece of jewelry.

In contrast, the precious metal content of jewelry is generally much easier to estimate.

First, you weigh the piece. Second, you subtract the estimated weight of any gemstones. Each carat of gem weight is equal to 0.2 grams, but the overall estimated gemstone weight doesn’t have to be very exact to be useful. Next, you multiply the net metal weight by the fineness of the alloy, expressed as a percentage. For example, 14 karat gold is 58.3% fine and 18 karat gold is 75% fine. The resulting number is the actual (estimated) pure precious metal content of the jewelry, which can then be multiplied by the current spot price of the metal to arrive at a dollar value.

Another downside of the intrinsic value strategy is that it forces you to be an opportunist. You can’t set out by saying, “I’m only going to purchase 1920s era Art Deco rings at less than 2x their intrinsic value.” There simply isn’t enough available in the marketplace for an approach this narrow to be viable. You will end up finding – and therefore buying – nothing.

Instead, you need to cast a wide net when investing in vintage jewelry based on intrinsic value. This means you must consider most eras and jewelry types. And your resulting collection will, by necessity, end up being somewhat eclectic.

The great advantage of purchasing vintage jewelry with a low price to intrinsic value ratio is that it is a very low risk proposition. Honestly, if done properly it should be almost impossible to lose money using this method. And the upside can be substantial. Incidentally, this is the method I use in my personal collecting, although it is certainly not for everyone.

But if all of this sounds a bit overwhelming, then I have a convenient shortcut you may find useful. If you can purchase a (non-synthetic) gem-set piece of fine antique jewelry in either 14 karat (or better) gold or platinum for $100 a gram or less, then it is usually a good deal from an intrinsic value standpoint. Many sellers will openly state a gram weight in their online listings, which makes this hint especially handy. The $100 a gram mark would equate to approximately double intrinsic value under most circumstances.

Photo Credit: nooni

This stylish pair of 1950s 14 karat yellow gold Mid-Century Modern cufflinks weighs an impressively hefty 13.6 grams. In addition, they are set with two good quality cabochon cut natural star sapphires. As a result, the intrinsic value of the set is approximately the same as its asking price (around $700) – a rare instant win in the world of vintage jewelry.

An alternative to the intrinsic value method of collecting fine vintage jewelry is to concentrate on examples that only employ one specific gemstone or material. In effect, you would become a specialist on one particular gem or metal. For example, you could choose to only collect platinum jewelry. Or you could specialize in pre-WWII jewelry containing old cut diamonds. You could even pursue something slightly outside the box like only collecting enameled jewelry or coral-set pieces, for example.

By specializing in one select material you would eventually become extremely knowledgeable about it. This would allow you to much more easily spot bargains in your chosen area of expertise. However, this approach lacks the safety of buying old jewelry based on a reasonable price to intrinsic value ratio.

3) Collecting Antique Jewelry by Designer

The final approach to collecting vintage jewelry is by designer or name brand. This strategy is pretty straight forward. Simply purchase older jewelry hallmarked by luminary haute couture luxury houses such as Cartier, Tiffany & Co., Boucheron, Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels, or Buccellati, among others.

The benefit to following this strategy is that you are guaranteed a fairly high level of overall quality. These storied luxury houses only hired experienced craftsmen who worked with the highest quality materials. As a result, vintage jewelry from Cartier, for example, will always be both well made and set with fine, natural gemstones.

The big downside to this type of collecting is that everyone else has already figured it out already. This means that prices for antique fine designer jewelry are through the roof – almost always thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars per piece. In fact, I am of the opinion that many participants in the vintage jewelry market use name brands as a proxy for quality.

That isn’t a compliment, by the way. It means that buyers are taking a shortcut to compensate for their lack of industry knowledge. But it is a very expensive shortcut.

Even though the luxury houses produced excellent quality jewelry, it doesn’t mean they had a monopoly on the very best jewelry. In fact, it is not uncommon for some high-end, completely unmarked vintage jewelry to be crafted to a better standard than pieces from even the most renowned luxury houses! But because many collectors don’t know how to identify the characteristics of high quality vintage jewelry on their own, they default to buying the “Tiffany & Co.” stamp on the back.

As a result they not only overpay in my opinion, but are also susceptible to forged hallmarks illicitly placed on lower quality goods.

Of course, one can always look beyond the typical designer names.

There were many other jewelry manufacturers who produced fine quality pieces that simply don’t get the same reverence as the haute couture luxury houses do. Overlooked makers include Liberty & Co. of London, Krementz of New Jersey, J.E. Caldwell of Philadelphia and Oscar Heyman of New York City. There were also more specialist jewelers like Mikimoto of Tokyo – a cultured pearl expert, Ming’s of Hawaii – specializing in jade, coral and pearls, and Gump’s of San Francisco – a leader in Orientalist motifs, jade and pearls.

Photo Credit: caz7722

The delicately hued enamels on this 1950s Krementz brooch are a feast for the eyes. Although it isn’t as well known as some of the big luxury houses, Krementz produced some truly top-notch vintage jewelry which is richly deserving of collectors’ and investors’ attention.

Because they are not household names, the pricing for these lesser-known vintage jewelry makers is often substantially less than that of the premier brands. However, their quality is not necessarily any lower. In fact, sometimes these makers produced jewelry for the major luxury houses under contract. But you would never know it because the Cartier or Tiffany & Co. hallmark is all that ended up being stamped on the finished goods.

A final approach to collecting antique jewelry by designer is to choose obscure makers who were nonetheless leaders in their fields. For example, Larter & Sons of Newark, NJ concentrated on men’s jewelry such as stickpins, cufflinks and studs. Carter, Gough & Co., also of Newark, NJ, specialized in pins and cufflinks, although they produced other types of jewelry as well.

Because these companies typically closed their doors decades ago, they have little name recognition today. As a result, it is often possible to pick up their masterpieces for a pittance compared to more well-known makers.

The big disadvantage of collecting antique jewelry from companies with little market acceptance is that their day in the sun may never come. Collectors may simply never really catch on to the fact that these underappreciated designers produced some truly fine jewelry.

In the end the most important rule for collecting antique jewelry is to buy what you like. However, it wouldn’t hurt to do so within one of the three frameworks listed above: theme, intrinsic value or designer.

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage gems & jewelry articles here.

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Read in-depth Antique Sage investment guides here.

Antique Jewelry Trends – Inflation in 2023 and Beyond

Photo Credit: Vintage Vault Classics

As 2023 unfolds, let’s talk for a moment about recent antique jewelry trends. But before we get to the meat of the topic, I’d like to start off with a short story. I promise it’s relevant – really!

Not long ago I was browsing listings for vintage and antique jewelry on Etsy, hoping to find a bargain.

This is definitely not as glamorous as it might sound.

My process involves wading through hundreds of listings looking for that one piece that wows me while sporting a reasonable price. These are much harder to find than you might think. In my estimate, only about 25 listings out of 1000 will be worth looking at more closely. Of those 25 listings, only 1 or 2 will be potential buys. That is an ultimate hit rate of 0.1% to 0.2% – not exactly rich pickings!

In any case, I eventually stumbled across a piece that fit my requirements. It was a bold 1940s Retro era floral brooch crafted in sumptuous 14 karat white gold, set with round-cut diamonds and marquise-cut rubies. This brooch had a lot going for it. It weighed in at an extraordinarily heavy 16.3 grams, meaning that the gold content of the piece alone was worth $50 more than the asking price!

It was also set with over two dozen brilliant-cut diamonds of various sizes, totaling more than 2 carats in weight. The large central diamond was not brilliant-cut, but was instead an Old European cut stone that I estimated at close to 40 points in weight. This mix of modern brilliant-cut diamonds and Old European cut diamonds in the same piece wasn’t uncommon in 1940s jewelry. In any case, the Retro brooch was stunning; it practically dripped with jewels!

There were however, a couple of things I didn’t love about the brooch.

The 17 marquise-cut rubies set at the perimeter of the brooch were all flame fusion synthetics. Although period correct and perfectly acceptable in a vintage piece of this era, I would have of course preferred natural rubies.

The Retro styling of the piece was also imperfect.

While Retro era jewelry is supposed to be bold – and this piece certainly was – it was simultaneously a little unfocused or amorphous in execution. I suspect that the piece was made in the late 1940s/early 1950s during the transition from Retro to Mid-Century design. To the detriment of the piece, it incorporated design elements from both styles.

Sometimes this happens in old jewelry.

Despite these shortcomings, I found the Retro brooch to be a compelling investment. The gold content of the piece more than covered its purchase price; the intrinsic value of the diamonds and any artistic value the brooch had were simply icing on the cake. The asking price was $490, but the seller was having a 30% off sale at the time. As a result, this lovely and authentic Retro brooch could be had for a mere $343!

I placed my order and then eagerly awaited my prize to be shipped.

Unfortunately, life had other plans.

A couple days after placing the order, the seller reached out to inform me that she couldn’t find the item in her inventory. Apparently, the brooch had been sold at a trade show a couple months earlier and had subsequently never been marked as sold in her books by accident. And just like that, the deal that I thought was there…evaporated.

I was terribly disappointed, but these things happen.

What this experience really underscored for me was just how difficult it has become to find investment grade vintage karat gold jewelry below the $500 price point in 2023. This troubling antique jewelry trend is a dramatic departure from the situation just a few years ago, when fine vintage material was reasonably plentiful for $400 or even $300. Now those same pieces are only offered for $700 or $800 – sometimes more!

I have some theories about why this happened and what the future may hold for the antique jewelry market.

Vintage Karat Gold Jewelry ($500 to $1,000) for Sale on eBay

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As with many things in our lives, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 is at least partially to blame for the skyrocketing price of fine old jewelry. When people were trapped in their homes due to the lockdowns, some entertained themselves with Netflix, others with online gambling and quite a few, apparently, with online shopping for vintage jewelry.

We don’t know how large the influx of new collectors/admirers hunting for sleek Art Deco pendants, whimsical Edwardian rings or bold Retro bracelets was, but it was significant enough to increase prices substantially across the board.

As I previously mentioned, there is vanishingly little good vintage karat gold/platinum jewelry supply left in the market below the $500 price point. There isn’t even that much in the $500 to $1,000 range, although there is certainly some. It is only above the psychologically important $1,000 mark that you begin to find plentiful numbers of high quality vintage and antique pieces.

This inflation driven antique jewelry trend has been a long time in coming.

For about 25 years – from the early 1990s to the late 2010s – pricing for fine vintage jewelry was fairly stable, with only modest increases often related to the rising underlying value of a piece’s gold or gemstone content. Yes, there were pockets of strength during that time in areas like signed designer pieces (Cartier, Bulgari, Tiffany, Bucheron, etc.) and those set with very valuable stones (superb quality emeralds, rubies, sapphires or diamonds greater than 1 or 2 carats in weight). But for most other segments of the vintage jewelry market, price appreciation proceeded at a leisurely 1% to 3% per annum for better than two decades.

The last few years since 2020 have blown this formerly reliable trend completely out of the water. Now good quality antique jewelry is experiencing 5% to 20% price increases every year – and that is on top of the approximately 50% one-time jump in prices around 2021.

Increased demand from new collectors isn’t the only dynamic at work, however.

There is also a persistently shrinking vintage jewelry supply due to the fact that the Silent and Boomer generations who once owned/inherited 1950s and earlier jewelry are now in terminal demographic decline. It is a truism of the estate sale business that the bulk of items found in most liquidating estates will be no older than about 60 years old. This means that most jewelry coming out of estates right now is from the 1960s or later. I explored this concept in greater depth in an article titled “The Demographics of Antiques“.

We can therefore infer that older antique jewelry from the 1950s and earlier will only become scarcer as time goes on – with commensurate price increases, of course!

So what is a vintage jewelry connoisseur or investor to do?

Well, I see four possible choices.

First, you could soldier on looking for the few remaining good quality karat gold pieces of vintage jewelry that are still available under $500. It would require a great deal of knowledge and patience for this strategy to pay off. And, unfortunately, the day will eventually come – probably sooner than we would hope – when there is simply nothing worthwhile left to be had at this price point.

I would also like to point out that a lot of the nicer vintage jewelry I’ve found recently in this category only technically qualifies from a price perspective. In other words, the asking price is $475 or $495 – a stone’s throw from $500. I fear that the days of really nice antique pieces being offered at $250 or $300 is probably over.

Vintage Scandinavian Modernist Jewelry for Sale on eBay

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Another strategy would be to simply throw in the towel and expand your budget. This would mean moving up to the $500 to $1,000 tier when shopping for antique jewelry. Even here, I don’t think there is a great selection available at the moment. But it is definitely a more viable option than trying to bottom-feed below $500.

When shopping in this price range I would emphasize solid karat gold or platinum jewelry that is set with sizable precious stones, if at all possible. In my opinion, it is very difficult to find non-gem set gold jewelry that is investment grade. And while there are always exceptions to every rule, a piece would have to be really special to be investment-oriented without gemstones.

A third approach would be to switch to vintage costume jewelry. The real advantage here is that you would be able to afford the best of the best – the top of the product stack – for under $500. Relatively few costume pieces sell for more than that, although some are starting to.

Vintage costume jewelry was also usually very on-point, stylistically speaking. Costume jewelry manufacturers always embraced the prevailing style trends of their age. So if you crave that big, expensive-looking, gem-studded Retro or Mid-Century look, but have a hopelessly small beer budget, then costume jewelry is a possibility.

Unfortunately, these are the only good things I can say about vintage costume jewelry. Costume jewelry almost always has zero intrinsic value. In addition, it was a mass produced product with no crossover between famous makers of fine jewelry and those of costume jewelry.

Therefore, I don’t consider vintage costume jewelry to be investible and do not believe it will have a return profile that is nearly as strong as high quality vintage karat gold jewelry in the future. Vintage costume jewelry appeals to the specialist or casual collector only – not the investor.

A final scenario would be to concentrate on Modernist jewelry from the late 1950s to the 1980s. I especially like Modernist pieces from the Scandinavian countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

Most of the Modernist jewelry in this price range will use sterling silver as its primary medium. Nonetheless, its organic shapes, eclectic themes and sweeping lines instinctively appeal to a broad range of people. And few peoples produced vintage Modernist jewelry to the same level of artistic accomplishment as the Scandinavians did.

Although tremendously beautiful, Modernist jewelry is still affordable for two different reasons.

First, it isn’t old enough to have rolled off the demographic wave I mentioned earlier. This means it is still relatively abundant in the marketplace. Secondly, Modernist jewelry is often made with lower intrinsic value materials such as sterling silver, quartzes, amber, enamel, etc. This limits the scrap value of most Modernist pieces, helping to keep them in a lower price range.

Photo Credit: inScandinavia

Although relatively inexpensive, this vintage Danish Modernist Sterling silver bracelet from the 1970s is mounted with bright green chrysoprase gemstones which create visual interest.

But don’t let the low prices fool you.

Modernist jewelry was often hand-made to a very high artistic and technical standard. In addition, examples of Scandinavian origin were usually at the cutting-edge of style for their era and were often clearly hallmarked as to maker, country, city and date! As an added bonus, it is not uncommon to find mixed metal Modernist jewelry rendered in sterling silver generously accented with solid karat gold elements. This helps separate high quality Modernist jewelry from less intrinsically valuable costume jewelry.

If you are interested in vintage jewelry as an investment and find yourself absolutely unable to exceed the $500 or $600 price barrier, then I wholeheartedly recommend Modernist jewelry as your best option.

For the first time in decades, inflation has finally found its way into the world of vintage jewelry. This is both a good and a bad thing. It is good because people are finally recognizing the value of fine vintage and antique jewelry, which had previously been ignored. But it is also bad because we can no longer buy older, gorgeous jewelry at unbelievably low prices anymore.

But I have a final bit of good news for vintage jewelry connoisseurs and investors. The U.S. economy – and with it the global economy – is almost certainly going to plunge into a severe recession by the end of 2023. When this happens there will be a 6 to 18 month window of temporarily reduced antique jewelry prices. This will give the financially savvy hard asset investor one last chance to snag a bargain in the world of high quality vintage jewelry.

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage trend articles here.

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Read in-depth Antique Sage investment guides here.

2023 Antique Buys I Like

One of the recurring themes of my blog is opportunistic investing. I would rather patiently wait to buy the right asset at the right price, rather than throw gobs of money to blindly hit the bid. As 2023 progresses, I believe we will see some juicy deals in the world of antiques.

Ever since the COVID pandemic hit in early 2020, I have favored purchasing pieces that are more liquid rather than less liquid. This can be a challenge in the antiques and tangible asset category where illiquidity abounds.

In the context of antiques, liquidity refers to items that sell for a modest premium over their melt/scrap value. In the circumstances of a forced sale, the worst you will do is recover an object’s intrinsic (scrap) value. But when you pay very little over melt value to begin with, any potential loss is strictly limited.

Bullion is obviously the most liquid of tangible assets. But premiums on gold, silver and platinum bullion have been rather high during 2022 as a result of overwhelming retail demand. Precious metal refineries and mints simply can’t keep up with demand – something that doesn’t look likely to change in 2023.

It is no fun paying a 25% premium over spot for an ordinary tube of generic 1 ounce silver rounds.

In these cases, I have found that buying rare coins, vintage watches or other relatively liquid, high quality antiques is a savvy investment alternative. After all, if you are going to pay an elevated premium over intrinsic value anyway, it is much better to buy a piece with some dimension of collectible, historical or cultural value instead of a modern bullion coin or ingot with little hope of ever trading as more than bullion.

As 2022 rolls into 2023, I wanted to let you peak over my shoulder at two of my recent trades that are perfect examples of investing in liquid antiques.

The first purchase was an 1878 U.S. Liberty head $5 half eagle gold coin I found while browsing Etsy. I’m a big fan of investing in lightly circulated, common date pre-1933 U.S. semi-numismatic gold coins in the current environment. They combine a solid cornerstone of bullion value with a generous dollop of numismatic potential. If they can be found for the right price (generally between a 10% and 50% premium over spot), they represent compelling tangible investments.

Photo Credit: AtlanticCollectiShop

Luckily for me, the price was right.

The seller had recently cut the asking price of the coin to $575. I also had a 5% discount code that the seller had previously sent me after I had added the piece to my watchlist about a week earlier. After applying the coupon the final price was $546.25, which represented a very reasonable 35% premium over melt value.

I was sold.

This particular gold half eagle ticked a lot of my checkboxes. First, the piece had been slabbed by PCGS – a well respected third-party grading service. This not only guarantees the authenticity of the coin, but also provides a professional opinion on its grade. Third-party grading is a godsend in the world of coin collecting, where small differences in grade can impact the value of a rare coin by hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

In this case, the assigned grade was AU-55. AU is shorthand for About Uncirculated. This is considered a higher grade among coin collectors – the last stop before encountering the highest tier of grades (Uncirculated pieces). According to PCGS, a coin in this condition shows “slight wear on the high points with minor friction in the fields. Luster can range from almost nonexistent to virtually full, but it will be missing from the high points.”

In fact, I often prefer buying AU-55 or AU-58 coins over ostensibly higher graded MS-60 or MS-61 coins of the same type. Why? Because lower Mint State (MS) coins are often ugly specimens covered in bagmarks, hairlines and ugly toning. A nice AU coin will technically have wear, but is often extremely attractive otherwise.

And in coin collecting eye appeal is everything.

In this instance, our gold half eagle exhibited excellent eye appeal characterized by wonderfully original surfaces. It is common for old gold coins to have been cleaned at some point in the past in a futile attempt to improve their appearance. This almost always destroys their decades-old patina, resulting in a brassy, unnaturally bright tone. A cleaned coin without its original patina is always worth less than one with its patina intact.

Happily, our example avoided this unpleasant fate.

Another attractive feature of the gold half eagle I purchased was its date. Although an 1878 $5 gold piece from the Philadelphia Mint is considered common date, it is still 144 year old and from a near-mythological era in American history. This coin could have been present during the shootout at the O.K. Corral in 1881. It might have graced the pocket of inventor Thomas Edison at his Menlo Park laboratory during the 1880s. It may have witnessed the devastation of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

History becomes real. And you can hold it in your hand.

The final factor that made this U.S. $5 gold coin so desirable was, once again, its encapsulation by PCGS. The style of PCGS holder that housed the coin is known as an Old Green Holder, or OGH for short. These are vintage holders that PCGS employed between 1986 and 1998. They are in high demand by collectors for two different reasons.

PCGS OGH & NGC Old Fatty Certified Pre-1933 U.S. Gold Coins for Sale on eBay

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First, Old Green Holders are collectible in their own right. PCGS last issued them around 25 years ago. The earliest examples are over 35 years old and were present during the infamous late 1980s certified coin bubble. All Old Green Holders are vintage pieces by now and many collectors enjoy owning them for their own sake, even if they don’t hold particularly rare or expensive coins.

The second reason Old Green Holders are typically bid at a premium is because third-party grading is widely regarded as having been more conservative in the early years of the industry. This means there is a greater chance that a coin housed in an OGH is a premium quality example within its stated grade. In rare instances, coins in OGHs have been resubmitted to the grading services and come back as the next higher grade!

Coin grading is ultimately subjective, so some slight variation is to be expected. This is true even when a coin is evaluated by expert graders. However, Old Green Holders have developed a durable reputation for housing solidly graded coins. As a result the market often bids them at a 5% to 10% premium to identical coins with the same numerical grade from the same grading service, but housed in later holders.

Our 1878 U.S. gold half eagle scored particularly well on this metric.

Its OGH is Gen. 3.1, which was issued between 1993 and 1998. This is especially desirable because it is a gold coin housed in an OGH – and a 19th century gold coin at that! So if a collector wants an OGH that houses a classic, pre-1933 U.S. gold coin with a lot of eye appeal, this example would be one of the most affordable and accessible candidates available.

A collector could also opt to purchase a similarly priced ($400 to $700) slabbed $1 Liberty/Princess head gold coin or a $2.5 Liberty/Indian head gold coin. But these specimens would be much smaller and less visually impressive than a $5 half eagle. On the other hand, $10 Liberty head eagles are another reasonable choice, but also sell for more than twice the price. A slabbed $10 Liberty head gold coin, even if only in AU-50 condition, would cost at least $1,200 in today’s market – even more if housed in an OGH.

In any case, I can only see pre-1933 semi-numismatic U.S. gold coins becoming more valuable as 2023 progresses – especially those housed in vintage NGC or PCGS holders.

Moving on from the space of numismatics, I have another vintage purchase that I wanted to document.

I sometimes search Etsy and eBay for jewelry categories that are overlooked in today’s fashion world, such as brooches or cufflinks. Because these types of jewelry are out of style today, it is sometimes possible to find great bargains on vintage or antique pieces.

As I was browsing Etsy, I stumbled across a magnificent pair of estate 18 karat yellow gold leopard-print pattern cufflinks listed for $350. The first thing that caught my eye about these cufflinks was their unusual leopard pattern motif. The unique design had been cleverly applied via a crosshatched Florentine finish. I had never seen anything quite like it before – a pair of Florentine leopard print cufflinks! It absolutely screamed outrageous 1980s fashion, although they could have been made anywhere from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s.

Photo Credit: TheButlerDidItInCB

The other interesting thing about the cufflinks is that they were marked 750, a reference to 750/1000 – the purity of the metal. 750 indicates a European origin and is equivalent to 75% fine or 18 karat gold. This is a high purity gold alloy that is typically used in fine or designer jewelry.

Unfortunately, I was unable to decipher the other hallmarks on the cufflinks, so I couldn’t narrow down the piece’s country of origin or maker.

Now all of this information was mildly intriguing to me, but not nearly enough for me to entertain purchasing the cufflinks.

What did tip the scales for me was when I saw the weight of the piece stated in the item description – 13 grams. This is a very substantial weight for a pair of cufflinks, reflecting not only the high density of 18 karat gold, but also the excellent build quality of the jewelry. Cheap karat gold jewelry is almost always as thin and light as the manufacturer can make it in order to save on material costs, while expensive karat gold jewelry is usually much heavier in weight.

13 grams is almost obscenely heavy for a pair of cufflinks. To give some perspective, I consider less than 6 grams to be a light-weight pair of cufflinks, 6 to 9 grams to be medium-weight and 9 to 12 grams to be heavy-weight. 13 grams is off the high end of the scale!

Now that I had the weight and purity of the piece, I could calculate a scrap value.

In these situations I always assume the true purity of the jewelry in question is lower than its stated/stamped purity. This is because the enforcement of hallmarking laws varied widely from country to country and it was common in certain regions for some fabricators to cheat on their gold content just a little to squeeze out a slightly higher profit margin. In this case, I assumed the cufflinks in question were only 70% fine gold instead of 75% fine.

I also applied a 95% payable gold rate on top of the assumed 70% purity. This is due to the fact that if I ever chose to scrap the jewelry, I would have to pay the refinery their cut. Each refinery has its own fee schedule, so refining charges can vary. However, I have found that it is pretty common for legitimate refineries to charge no more than 5% of recoverable gold. These charges may be lower, especially if you are sending in a larger lot containing several troy ounces or more of recoverable gold.

So the final formula calculation was 13 grams (gross weight) x 0.7 (fineness) x 0.95 (refinery payable gold) x $1710 (gold spot price at the time of purchase) = $475. Remember, the cufflinks were listed for just $350. So a $475 scrap value equates to $125 in free gold!

Now I was sold!

Vintage 14 Karat & 18 Karat Gold Cufflinks for Sale on eBay

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The fact that these 18 karat gold leopard print cufflinks were high quality designer jewelry dripping with opulent 1980s style was simply icing on the cake. Once purchased, I have the option of either scrapping the cufflinks outright or holding onto them for their potentially higher resale value as vintage jewelry. For now I’m patiently holding them.

These are the kinds of deals I like the most, although they are very difficult to come by. After all, few people are willing to sell jewelry below its melt value!

As 2022 comes to a close and 2023 arrives, I am more convinced than ever that high quality antiques represent one of the best investments you can make in today’s treacherous financial markets. Provided you don’t overpay, I simply don’t see how you can go wrong.

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage editorial articles here.

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