Love Through the Ages

Period engagement rings offer today’s bride the allure of unique styling and beautiful detailing.

Finding the perfect engagement ring is a true labor of love. That quest to find the stone and setting with the desired sense of romance and individuality has led many modern brides-to-be to the estate jewelry market. Older diamonds in period mountings offer a look that can’t be found in newer rings. An antique jewelry selection, says Malcolm Logan, one of the owners of Nelson Rarities, Portland, Maine, offers more than the “simple yellow-gold shank, white gold, 4- or 6-prong setting they can buy at a mall.” Suzanne Martinez, buyer, Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry in San Francisco, California, agrees. “People want to have something that is unique and different.” The cachet of history has an appealing sense of lasting style “that is not popular just for today and out tomorrow,”says Lisa M. Stockhammer, president of The Three Graces.com, an online retailer of antique and vintage jewelry.

Something Old

“We’ve been selling Art Deco rings and Asscher cut diamonds and cushion cuts primarily,” says Logan. “The emphasis seems to be on diamond color, color, color,anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000, stones that are G or better.” David Margulis, owner of Margulis Jewelers, Portland, Oregon, agrees that “The two most popular styles are Deco and Edwardian; most in demand, when they can afford it, is an Asscher cut. Anyone who’s looked and studied a bit gets terribly carried away with Asschers.”

The simpler facet plan of an Asscher cut, says Logan, is a little easier on the eyes to keep looking at than a modern cut. “There is a charm to the older stones,” he sums up.“Basically, diamonds were cut for the degree of indoor light that existed in society. So an old mine, old cushion cut diamond with an open culet was cut for candlelight, a flickering light. The culet was open so a lot of light escaped through the bottom of the stone.” When you explain to customers that the stone was cut for candlelight, notes Logan, “that it was cut 120 or 130, 140 years ago, they like that.”

Stockhammer, who specializes in Victorian and early- twentieth-century jewelry, has found her clients are looking for something more in a setting than just a solitaire. “They’re definitely looking for something that has some symbolism on it. Side shapes or leaves or florals or little hearts draw their attention, something with meaning that’s not just a pretty mounting. Or the lacy look — filigree is always popular. People seem to respond to that Edwardian, open, lacy feel.”

“Filigree, but not too much filigree,” states Logan. “The rings that are too busy are not what’s selling — they used to be, but no longer. Nor are things that have too many small micropavé diamonds. I find that’s gone out of style.”

Martinez is seeing demand for Edwardian. “I would say that right now, we are seeing a real surge in popularity in Edwardian dome-style rings. Edwardian is a little bit more popular than it has been in the past few years. We always sell a lot of Art Deco and forties and fifties white gold and platinum rings.”
Jeff Russak, owner, Lawrence Jeffrey Estate Jewelers, Litchfield, Connecticut, notes that wonderful Art Deco or Edwardian platinum settings are “number one” on customers’ shopping lists. When it comes to diamonds, Russak says, “Certainly, round brilliant cuts of all stripes rule. People imagine they’re going to like other cuts but in the end, in the Northeast, they want something that they’re going to be comfortable with for the rest of their lives.”
“Recently, we’ve had a request for European cut stones;there is renewed interest in them in platinum mountings,”says Cindy Ritzi of Wm. Ritzi & Co., Daytona Beach, Florida.

Something New

Another reason that people come to the estate jewelry market to look for engagement rings is that “they’re looking for alternatives,” adds Russak. “These are customers whose tastes are very unique, whose style is very unique. They’re looking for something that most people might not imagine using as an engagement ring.” If they don’t want to go the diamond route, he says, that usually means colored stones in older settings. “And very often, it’s not the obvious, not the sapphire but something really unusual — tourmalines, emeralds. I’ve sold an 8-carat pink topaz as an engagement ring.”

Stockhammer has found “people tend to be drawn to rings with some accent color — like a sapphire and a diamond versus just a plain diamond. I’ve noticed when we have mounts with sapphires particularly, they have always sold very well. It’s been fairly consistent for us.”

Something to Cherish

Buying a new diamond today means making decisions on the 4Cs of cut, color, clarity and carat size that your budget can allow. But, notes Martinez, “one thing that’s different in the old market from the new market is that, in an old piece, we have the original diamond in the mounting and you’re picking the whole look. And a lot of the diamonds have a little color to them. The European cuts and the mine cuts tend to face up a little whiter.” In today’s economy, she says, “we’re selling a lot more smaller diamond rings — the average price point has gone down.” Logan agrees that “larger diamonds are not selling. People have lowered their demand of what they’re looking for in terms of what they’re willing to spend.”

Happily, though, older settings offer the type of detailing that today’s newer rings can’t match for the money. These include, “pierced wirework, filigree, some sort of interesting openwork and interesting work on the undergallery,” says Margulis. “The more period distinctive it is, the better. It needs to have some interesting detail.”

The Deco and Edwardian rings, says Russak, offer so much handwork that if you had to pay a skilled craftsman today to duplicate it, you couldn’t afford it. “Customers are able to get construction in a piece of jewelry that they can’t get for the same price in a new piece,” agrees Martinez. “So they get the detail, the quality. Many times they can buy a platinum ring and they can’t even get a new platinum ring made for that price in the contemporary market. So they’re getting a good value for their money, plus they’re getting something interesting and one of a kind.”

“I think that pieces that are extraordinarily well made make your heart race when you look at them,” sums up Russak. “That’s why customers look for an estate ring. They know they’re going to find something they’re really going to fall in love with.”

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - April 2009. To subscribe click here.