Care
The antique or vintage pieces of jewellery at the estate, are obviously pre-owned and as such will have wear commensurate with each piece's age. All of our pieces have been checked by our jeweller to ensure that all stones are secure and catches and latches are in good working order.
Jewellery like everything else wears. The way you treat your pieces and how you look after them will have a large impact on how they wear. To ensure that your jewellery lasts a lifetime and beyond, there are a number of recommendations that we make.
Your jewellery should be the last thing you put on in the morning and the first thing you take off at night.
Do not wear your jewellery when performing vigorous or physical activities that may damage it. Activities such as sports, exercise and especially gardening. Do not wear your jewellery when cleaning, doing the dishes or laundry. We also suggest you remove it before swimming in either a pool or the ocean.
If you have porous stones such as opals, pearls and turquoise, you should avoid prolonged submersion in water, and you need to be particularly careful with how you clean these pieces.
Of course it is up to you whether you do the above or not, but if you look after your jewellery you will easily double its life.
We recommend that you take your pieces to your jeweller at least once a year, to have them checked and cleaned. It is much cheaper and less stressful to have claws retipped than lose a stone.
Jewellery should be cleaned regularly to maintain its beauty. To clean your jewellery at home, soak the pieces for a few minutes (not porous stones) in warm water with a little dishwashing detergent in it and then use an extra-soft toothbrush to clean them. Rinse with warm water and dry with a lint free cloth (not a towel as the loops can catch on claws). Then give your piece a polish with a polishing cloth.
It is worthwhile investing in a good jewellery cleaning solution that can be bought from a reputable jeweller and also in a polishing cloth.