What are Vintage Diamond Engagement Rings
Vintage diamond engagement rings are often delicate and need to be handled with care. As the term vintages covers rings made in the period since Queen Victoria sat on the throne of England, some of these pieces will be over 100 years old. You probably don’t want to wear them gardening or doing household chores. Don’t try cleaning these rings yourself as even the special jewelry cleaning fluids may be too harsh for these antiques.
Instead bring your antique engagement ring to a specialist jeweler and ask them to clean it for you. They will have to remove decades of oil and dirt so it will take some time and won’t be the cheapest service but your ring should sparkle afterwards. The experts will also be able to check the setting and prongs to make sure that none of the stones are loose. Don’t forget to insure your ring as not only is it probably worth a lot of money, but it would be very expensive to have to repair or replace it.
Vintage art deco rings usually incorporate different colored stones in the ring setting although some are solely diamonds. While diamonds are the hardest stones known to man, the second hardest is something called corundum. I am almost positive you have never heard of this stone yet I am sure you have looked at more than a few rings made with it. Ruby rings for instance. Or perhaps you fancied an art deco engagement ring with sapphires and diamonds.
Sapphire and Rubies are two gemstones which originate from corundum. In its purest form corundum would be white but rubies get their magnificent color from traces of chromium. The finest rubies in the world are mined in Burma. Sapphires get their color from titanium and iron and the most famous come from Kashmir in India. As with most gemstones, the darker the color of the stones the more valuable they usually are.
Watch out for pearls in antique ring settings. They were a particular favorite in the Victorian era but a lot of modern women consider them unlucky and your fiancé may be one of these superstitious women.
If you fancy diamonds for your special occasion, you may want to look at some antique diamond collections set in platinum. Platinum engagement rings became popular in the early 1900s and remained so until the Second World War when the military requirement for platinum meant that it was in short supply. Yellow gold became more fashionable at this time.
Art deco platinum diamond engagement rings can be found in antique jewelers and auction houses. They are usually set with an old European cut large diamond, with additional stones depending on the style. They are expensive as they are quite rare so some jewelers have started to copy these beautiful designs obviously using modern technology and cutting techniques. It is possible to buy replicas of vintage diamond engagement rings for a fraction of the cost of the original but the downside is that unless you commission a custom piece, there may be some very similar pieces available in shops all over the country.