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Gemstone guide

Gemstones in vintage jewellery

A sapphire from 1900 is not the same stone as a sapphire from 2020. They share the chemical recipe, but everything we've done with them differs: the cut was calculated by hand and preserved colour, the setting often closed at the back to enhance colour with foil, and early synthesis (Verneuil, from around 1902) already circulated in fine ateliers before anyone called it 'imitation'. Whoever wants to read vintage jewellery learns first to read the stones. This guide arranges them in six categories: from the precious four to organic material and typically vintage. For the broader technique of cuts, see also cuts, a reading guide.

Complete guide

Birthstones by month

Twelve stones, from garnet in January to turquoise in December. Meaning, how they appear in vintage jewellery and what to watch for on older examples, with links to the in-depth stone guides.

Read the guide →
The precious four

Diamond, sapphire, ruby and emerald

The four stones around which fine jewellery has organised itself for centuries. In vintage work it is not only about material, but about the cut, foil-backed settings and whether early synthesis was already in play.

Character stones of vintage

Opal, garnet, pearl, amethyst, aquamarine, turquoise, moonstone and citrine

The stones that carry the atmosphere of vintage work — often less costly per carat than the precious four, but with characters that bind themselves to period, atelier and wearer.

Collector and confusion stones

Spinel, zircon and the ruby/diamond imitations at pattern level

Two stones long mistaken for others, whose synthetic variants filled much of the early twentieth-century imitation market.

Coloured-stone families and men's jewellery

Jade, lapis lazuli and the chalcedony family

Materials with strong aesthetics and usage contexts of their own — the art-deco jade wave, the lapis men's ring and generations of signet rings and cameos in chalcedony.

Organic material

Jet, amber, coral and ivory

Materials of animal or plant origin, with their own conventions of recognition, care and (for ivory and coral) legal framework.

Typically vintage

Marcasite and paste

Two materials typical of certain vintage periods and often still underrated — a collecting field of their own with their own aesthetic rules.