One of the joys of my job is to discover things that, dare I say it, most jewellers would look at and say … too hard … just put them in the melting pot!

About 6 months ago I was going through a collection of old jewels and pieces of scrap that hadn’t seen the light of day for many years. Amongst them were these silver and gold mounted earrings; looking very dull and dreary.

My feelings are that originally they would have been set with Diamonds, probably rose and/or old cuts and possibly with a drop shape Diamond in the centre of each. I also felt they would have been made circa 1830-1840…. Georgian…. Definitely not something to scrap or destroy.

We are blessed in Melbourne that we have fantastic jewellers and setters many of whom I work with and who share my passion for jewels. These craftsmen, as well as my gem supplier painstakingly found a series of cabochon and faceted garnets, that over time were carefully set into the existing settings. The main problem was that many of these settings had literally been shortened or sawn through when the original diamonds were removed. So we worked out that the way to overcome this problem was to set cabochon stones rather than faceted stones as these didn’t require the original longer claws.

Of course to supply Diamonds would also have cost a fortune and so garnets were used (which actually were stones also often used in this period for such jewels) and then I came across a pair of Keshi pearls which set the end result off perfectly.

So no matter what you have tucked away let me go through these things for you and who knows we might be able to restore a family heirloom for you too.