ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BIOBLIOGRAPHY

Antique Jewelry:
A Practical and Passionate Guide

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Introduction

How does one begin to write about a hobby that is also a passion—a pastime that can also be a livelihood—an investment that also informs and enriches one's human understanding?

A decade ago, I really didn't know that antique jewelry existed. When my mother died, she left a few modest pieces of family jewelry—a ring my grandmother had worn, a ring of my grandfather's, a small stickpin, her own well-loved cameos and bar pins. And from owning these, my own collection—and passion—has grown. For my grandmother's ring appeared in a picture of her as a young bride. I remembered my grandfather's ring on his finger. And my mother's jewelry reminded me of rich family occasions when she had worn it with pleasure and pride. In little, these few pieces reflected that truth about all antique jewelry—they were intensely personal, beloved, human, and beautiful.

Chapter 1

What is the fascination of antique jewelry, anyhow? Why do women—and men—cluster around the jewelry dealers at antique shows, leaning eagerly over the counters to get a closer look at what sometimes is very meager fare? Why do mothers hand down to their daughters "grandma's wedding ring," or pass on to their sons' sons a grandfather's gold watch? Of course there is a beauty in preserving one's own family heirlooms, but the charm of old jewelry far outshines that personal goal. It speaks of a time gone; it has survived in a disrespectful world where so much is lost; it comes from an age when workmanship and fine craft were taken seriously; it is often beautiful in a mellow and mature way that "modern design" does not aspire to; and it has been proven, through centuries of collecting, to be an investment unparalleled in these times of insecure "securities."

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