Antique jewelry glossary

Welcome to our extensive antique jewelry glossary with around 1,500 jewelry related entries.If you feel you are missing an explanation, feel free to let us know and we will add it.

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Silver on gold

See our: Silver jewelry.

This technique was very often used with jewelry containing diamonds because jewelers of that time believed that only a silver mounting could render the true beauty of a precious stone. They were also aware of the fact that silver jewelry often left black stains on clothing or skin, so they resolved the matter by coating the backs of the jewels in gold.