“New” Article on Repairs

Good morning,

Learning how and when to repair vintage costume jewelry is an important skill for beginning and experienced collectors. In my book Collecting Costume Jewelry 101, I devote four pages to this topic. The information in those pages, twenty years after publication, still provides a useful guide for beginning collectors.

Of course, the best way to repair vintage jewelry is to buy jewelry that does not need repairing! With that goal I suggest the following three purchasing rules.

• Always, always, always check the plating and mechanical elements of a piece before purchasing. These types of repairs are difficult and will often greatly reduce the value of the item.
• Although a few missing stones are not usually a problem, do not knowingly purchase an item with RARE, hard-to-find stones.
• Consider the costs of the repairs and whether or not the piece is worth the time and trouble.

Truthfully, I do NOT always follow my own guidelines. My heart rules my head and I acquire jewelry that needs repairing. When this happens, not if this happens but when this happens, I do my best to remedy the situation.

With that in mind, I decided to write an article sharing three times I violated my own rules. It is titled Refurbishing Vintage Designs: Three Pieces, Three Decisions, Three Results and can be found under Information on the home page.

In this article I document the repair paths for the jewelry shown above: a rare Sandor Sterling 1940s era pin, a Boucher butterfly pin with rare over-the-ear earrings; and a cheeky Coro duette.

It was fun writing the article. It was fun working on the jewelry. I hope you have fun reading it.

Happy Collecting,

Love,

Julie