Collectibles Articles Directory
Number One Ranked Article Directory
115 FREE Collectibles Price Guides || 1,000,000 Collectibles Images || 200 Collectibles Glossaries  

blog.RubyLane.com's Articles

  • 14 Tips for Selling Jewelry and Other Things Online
    We can share our experiences and knowledge, but you have to do the work, and work it is. This information is relevant no matter what you sell or where you decide to hang up your online shop shingle.
  • A Guide To Cameos
    Think of cameos and you are likely to picture a brooch with the profile of a woman carved in shell. Did you know that this style of cameo is only one of a broad array of carved miniatures considered cameos? Indeed, the very popular profile cameo is largely a 20th century creation. To understand more about cameos – miniature wearable works of art – let’s take a brief look at the different types of cameos and their history.
  • An Introduction To Pearls
    Does this sound like you? "I have a drawer full of very nice pearl necklaces. My problem is I'm terrified to list them lest I should violate any fraud laws. I have bought two books, read numerous articles, taken several to my jeweler who gave an opinion about a few of them and executed numerous "tooth" tests trying to be really sure about whether or not they are real." – ‘Does anyone else have this problem? I window-shopped on several different e-commerce sites, to see what is being offered.
  • Antiques and Vintage: The Differences
    As of late the terms, 'antique' and 'vintage' have started taking on vague meanings in the marketplace. Unfortunately, these and other terms that have always been essential constituents to the lexicon of collectors are, more and more, being used incorrectly. Often this is not due to the fact that the user intends to deceive or misrepresent their goods, but instead occurs perhaps because writing is not their first love or crafting descriptions is a skill they are still honing.
  • Attribution vs. Identification
    Attribution is a term often misunderstood and/or misused. The meaning is sometimes confused with, or intended to be a substitute for the word identification. An attribution remains only the subjective declaration or opinion of the researcher(s), even after careful research of a unique unmarked item is conducted and documented, with an aim toward arriving at a credible conclusion.
  • Authenticating Cast Iron
    Resilient to abuse and versatile by nature, 'cast' iron was so named because it is made by 'casting' (pouring) molten iron into a mold. From the 1830's through the middle of the 1850's, cooking vessels – and the stoves on which to cook with them – were made of cast iron. Fanciful castings for windows, furniture and lawn decorations were also in great demand during this time period.
  • Beware: New Reproduction Jewelry
    Online jewelry dealers are often not only buyers of antique and vintage costume jewelry, but they are collectors as well. Whether buying or selling, everyone needs to be aware that costume jewelry is experiencing a rising tide of fakes, reproductions and 'reissues,' due to the increase in value of classic vintage pieces in this collecting niche.
  • Celtic Revival Styles
    Celtic culture is most associated with Ireland and Scotland, although the culture is more widespread. Celt was a term first applied to various peoples of continental Europe. United by common language and some cultural traits, they were not a unified monolithic group of people, but a conglomeration of various tribes, often warring against each other.
  • Cubic Zirconia and Zircon
    Cubic Zirconia has no true natural counterpart, and is not a synthetic version of natural zircon. It is a man made version of zirconium oxide. There are several naturally occurring zirconium oxides, none of which have any commercial importance, and none of which are used in jewelry.
  • Dating Jewelry - Precious Metal Hallmarks
    The use of hallmarks on jewelry and objects made from precious metal began in the 1400’s, however many unmarked pieces exist. The passage of time and repair work has marred or eliminated marks from many pieces making them harder to identify the precious metal content, the country of manufacturer or the maker.
  • Dating Jewelry: Jewelry Metals
    Dating jewelry accurately can be quite a challenge. Many materials and techniques used today in production are the same basic methods used for at least 5000 years! Crafts people today take gold, silver, and other metals, and use the techniques of granulation, casting, engraving, chasing, and piercing to produce beautiful jewelry, just like the metal smiths of Ancient Egypt and Asia Minor did ages ago.
  • December's Birthday Gemstones
    The month of December, with all its Holiday shopping, is known for offering a wide range of choices in everything imaginable. The same holds true with the birthstone for the month. Those born in December are offered 5 different choices! Lapis and Zircon are the two most traditional choices, with turquoise being a bit later addition.
  • DeLizza and Elster Jewelry - Juliana
    If you have seen DeLizza and Elster jewelry, often referred to as Juliana, then you already know that it is typically big, bold and beautiful! Today, as forty years ago, this jewelry gets noticed. The designers spared no imagination in their combinations of shapes and colors and you can find glitzy rhinestones and gorgeous art glass combined in striking creations. D&E jewelry was made to last and the quality of workmanship is remarkable.
  • Fact Check: Cut Glass or Molded Pattern Glass?
    A common mistake new buyers and collectors of glass will sometimes make is to look at a piece of glass with a molded pattern and mistake it for glass onto which a pattern or design has been manually ‘cut.’ On occasion, too, if this error is brought to the attention of some dealers, they may even insist no misidentification has taken place. They will state that their description of a molded pattern as ‘cut’ is correct and base this perception on inaccurate glass nomenclature which may be found in many places elsewhere on the Internet.
  • Fact Check: Early Photographica
    Cased tintypes are quite innocently identified as daguerreotypes. On any given day a particularly nice image can be found misidentified as something it is not. Sometimes this can be to the collector’s advantage because a worthy antique piece will be accompanied by a ridiculously low price.
  • Fact Check: Tole and Toleware
    Being derived from ‘taule,’ an early French word for ‘table,’ by implication tole was ware for table use. Sheet iron used to make household articles was also referred to as tole. To forestall rust it would be painted, making ‘tole peinte’ (painted tole). The relationship of the word to sheet or tinplated iron notwithstanding, early on painted toleware was raised to its highest art form on a base of pewter, an alloy of metals in which tin is chiefly component.
  • Fact Check: What Are The Primary Types of Porcelain?
    There are two primary types of Porcelain, with a third distinguished by nomenclature when a specific additive to a basic formula is included:
  • Fakes: An Historical Perspective
    For as long as mankind has used his hands to create useful, intricate objects; as long as the mysteries of the natural world have been pondered, and tools or instruments made with the intent to tame or investigate that world; as long as a creative soul has sought to gift kin with a meaningful experience through art, or the warrior to gift himself with notoriety amongst his peers, there have been collectors with a penchant to own objects connected to other people, places and times.
  • February Birthstone - Amethyst
    Carved intaglios from amethyst have been unearthed at excavation sites of ancient cities. The kingdoms of Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, and the Anglo-Saxon’s were familiar with the material and used it in royal jewelry and other items. There are carvings in amethyst that exist today that are identified as from the Egyptian XII Dynasty, believed to be produced around 2000 B.C.E.
  • Galalith is Not French Bakelite
    Galalith is the name of a plastic developed in Germany in the late 19th century. Galalith, made from casein, a milk-based protein gets it trade name ‘milk stone’ from the Greeks - gala for milk and logos for stones. Galalith started as a failed attempt to produce a plastic material specifically for “whiteboards,” intended to replace blackboards in the German classroom.
  • Green Glass is NOT Vaseline Glass
    Vaseline glass is a peculiar yellow to yellow/green glass that will fluoresce. When exposed to ultraviolet light it glows a bright green color. This bright green color can only be observed while a piece of Vaseline glass is under UV light.

    Made 1840 to the present. 'Vaseline glass' is not a term that properly references any colored glass that may glow under black light. 'Vaseline Glass' is always yellow to yellow/green in color, by definition. Similar in color to its namesake, 'Vaseline.'
  • How not to Clean your Original Paintings
    Many people are unsure of how to clean their oil paintings and following some old wives tales such as using potato or bread to clean your paintings do not work.
  • Identifying Alaskan Native American Items
    For centuries Northwest Coast Native people (those inhabiting the coasts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Northern California and British Columbia, Canada) lived as fishermen, hunters and subsistence dwellers. These folks created hauntingly beautiful and distinctive carvings, paintings, and woven works and their subject matter came directly from their natural surroundings. Using only natural grasses, spruce roots and cedar bark the women wove intricately designed baskets of every imaginable size a
  • Identifying Sevres Porcelain
    Established at Chateau de Vincennes in 1738, where the soft paste porcelain formula was only used in manufacture, as a Royal Manufactury under Louis XV the porcelain factory was moved to larger quarters in the village of Sevres, about 6 miles southwest of the center of Paris, in 1756. The King’s new factory began its production at the very same time that Saxony became embroiled in the Seven Years War (1756 – 1763) resulting in the closing of the Meissen factory for a time.
  • Interpreting Makers Marks on China and Porcelain
    Many experienced collectors and dealers of pottery say it is important to not only research the mark or backstamp but to consider the shape, decoration, and type of ware as well, before coming to a definitive conclusion as to maker. For example, if an item is said to be a Staffordshire pottery spill vase, circa 1850, yet the piece is made of hard paste porcelain – we know this is a fake because Staffordshire pottery was not made from hard paste porcelain.
  • Jade: "Stone of Heaven"
    Jade has an incredibly long, but sometimes confusing history. It is used for jewelry, as well as other ceremonial and decorative uses. The history of jade mining in China goes back 6000 years, and 4,000-year-old ceremonial jade items exist today. It is associated with the ancient cultures of Korea, New Zealand, and it was also used by the Pre-Columbian Americans.
  • Jewelry - What Every Buyer Wants to Know
    Providing complete information about a jewelry piece means a buyer doesn’t have to stop and ask questions before deciding to buy. People who are pressed for time, such as those shopping for a gift, will almost never want to ask questions and have to wait for answers, they simply move on.
  • Jewelry Enamels
    Enamel is the hard vitreous substance (composed of glass and inorganic pigments used to produce color) fused to a metal jewelry object through the use of heat, and enameling is the technique by which the substance is applied. The object is heated until the glass begins to soften and flow.
  • Joseph and Richard Lamb: Architectural Wonders In Stained and Colored Glass
    The brothers Joseph and Richard Lamb came to New York City from England and in 1857 founded the J. and R. Lamb Studios. The firm became widely known as one that could produce architectural wonders in stained and colored glass. Their renown in ecclesiastical installations preceded that of later firms who eventually did similar work, such as Tiffany Studios, and Lamb designs incorporating opalescent glass are particularly prized.
  • Magical Gemstone Used in Vintage Jewelry Design
    Gemstones have long been used in vintage Jewelry designs as well as more traditional jewelry. Various coloured gemstones are used as the main focus of some jewelry pieces but can often be used in vintage jewelry to just add the finishing touch to a jewelry design perfectly.
  • Porcelain - Transfer Print or Hand Painted?
    A common error made by individuals new to handling decorated porcelain is mistaking transfer printing for hand painting. A transfer print can fool the untrained eye, mistaking it for hand painting. Mistakes occur because the lovely portrait or floral image under examination is either well made or because the bottom of the piece is stamped, 'Hand Painted' when it is not, or when it is only partially hand painted.
  • Precious Metal Testing: A Beginner's Guide
    If you buy and sell vintage and antique jewelry long enough, you will acquire some pieces that though unmarked, seem to be made of fine metal. Maybe it is their heft, their color or their style, but something tells you these are “better” pieces.
  • Rhinestones: All That Glitters
    Originally, rhinestone referred to rock crystal, the clear variety of quartz, obtained from the Rhine River. According to some sources, in the late 18th century, an Alsatian jeweler, George Frederic Strass, developed a method of coating the pavilions of the stones with a metallic powder, which made them more reflective and brilliant, and a better imitation of diamond. Other accounts credit Strass (or Stras) with the introduction of a lead glass for use in jewelry.
  • ROLLED SHEFFIELD SILVER PLATE: What it is and how it began
    It was about 1743 when Thomas Boulsover discovered that an ingot of copper could be given a coating of silver by means of fusion by heat, and that the two metals united could be worked into shape as one. Most importantly, the copper always retained its silver covering, however thinly it was rolled. At first, Boulsover used plated copper for making buttons, boxes and other small wares. However, in the 1750s and 1760s the new process was taken up by other manufacturers and quickly became one of Sh
  • Sandwich Glass
    The Boston and Sandwich Glassworks Company of Sandwich, Massachusetts, had its beginnings in the mid-1820’s. Deming Jarves, the founder of the company, convinced skilled glass artisans - individuals respected as glass producers from all over the world including England and Bohemia, to come and work for his company.
  • Sapphire Gemstone Jewelry use and History
    Sapphire gemstones use and history of the Blue sapphire stone. A powerful stone that invokes love and can be used to heal the Sapphire has a rich and wonderful history.
  • The Introduction of Porcelain Production in England - Part 1
    Discovered by the Chinese hundreds of years before, the secret of making the highly prized and coveted true hard paste ceramic body did not arrive in Europe until the early years of the 18thC. After many lengthy trials and much personal suffering, the formula was successfully recreated by Johann Bottger at Dresden C1710, (a struggle vividly and entertainingly recounted in the 'The Arcanum'
  • The Other August Birthstones - Sard and Sardonyx
    While the Peridot, with its distinctive green color is most widely associated with the month of August as a birthstone, there are widely and long accepted alternatives.
  • The Other October Birthstone - Tourmaline
    While Opal is the most widely recognized birthstone for the month of October, it is not your only choice. Tourmaline, a complex mineral, comes in as many shades of color as are displayed in fine Opals, and the pink variety is widely accepted as an alternate birthstone for the month.
  • The Victorian Era - Part I
    The Victorian Era encompasses 64 years; from 1837 to 1901, the same period as the reign of Queen Victoria from which it takes its name. The period sees many changes in the world along with a broad mix of design styles, which makes it difficult to summarize. The Victorian Era takes it name from Queen Victoria who “by the Grace of God is Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, defender of the faith, and Empress of India”, the longest reigning English monarch.
  • The Victorian Era - Part II
    Interest in Greek and Roman themes dominated the 18th century and the early 19th century, which affected styles in fashion, design, and architecture. Gothic and military styles were also popular, influencing the fashion world. The styles of the period were in part, inspired by the lives and works of the writers and poets of the Romantic Movement and the love of the Gothic created an appeal for all things medieval.
  • The Victorian Era - Part III
    The Victorian Era is dated to the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901. To be truly Victorian we feel a piece needs to be capable of being definitively dated to this period. However, questions do come up regarding the use of terms such as Victorian Revival or Victorian style.
  • Tips for Obtaining and Using Appraisals
    Who can be considered a ‘qualified appraiser’ of personal property?
    Pretty much anyone can hang out a shingle to advertise himself or herself as qualified to appraise personal property. They might base this ability on their ‘years in the business’ or their education in a given field. But, the truth is the fact that someone might be a 'specialist' or that they might have expert knowledge about a certain type of item doesn’t actually mean they will also be able to produce a professional appraisal.
  • Unseemly Reflections in Your Item Photos
    Supplying images that are blurry or too distant from an item can definitely affect a shop’s sales. But so can offering unseemly views of an uncomplimentary pose or portion of the picture taker’s anatomy that reflect from the polished surface of an item. Sometimes very clear, up-close graphic images can be accidentally included in reflections.
  • Village to Vogue Arthur Smith Jewelry Brooklyn Exhibit
    Brooklyn Museum Jewelry exhibit showing Art Smiths Gold and Silver Jewelry Creations as well as other Jewelry designers products from vintage throught to modern Jewelry designs.
  • Vintage Cookbooks - Still Good for Recipe Ideas?
    Even in this day and age vintage cookery books can be useful when preparing a meal. Traditional foods such as game or food produce collected from the land will have many old recipes in vintage cookbooks that may not be so common in more recent cook books.
  • What is Rhodium?
    In its natural solid state, Rhodium is far too hard to work, but is used as an alloy in the smelting of platinum and palladium for use in fine jewelry because it adds hardness and durability to the platinum. Okay, but that seller at the market was selling a costume brooch, so why did she refer to it as rhodium? That's easy.



©2008-2010 Copyright Collectibles-Articles.com All rights reserved.
Collectibles Articles Directory
Disclaimer: The information presented and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors.
Collectibles-Articles.com and its owners have no responsibility for said content.

Powered by Article Dashboard