Grandma's Jewels, Hip Again

There was a time when bling had a little more zing - and it was a lot more personal.

"People are longing for jewelry with a sense of history."

Throughout history, inscribed jewelry has gone in and out of vogue. At the turn of the last century it became all the rage to engrave personal messages on lockets, broaches, cuff links, watches, and the like. Poems, symbols, names, and special dates transformed a ho-hum piece into something really unique.

Flash to 2006 and collectors and dealers are snapping the stuff up. "People are longing for jewelry with a sense of history and meaning," says Lisa Stockhammer, the owner of The Three Graces, an antique jewelry site. "A piece with an inscription has a real personality." She maintains that both women and men were extremely sentimental during the Victorian era and it was common to have names and initials inscribed. Sometimes a lock of hair was even tucked into pieces of jewelry. "Personalization was key."

In her own store, she's found that antique "Regard" rings are popular alternatives to engagement rings - these are rings where the first letter of each stone spells out the word "Regard" (Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, and Diamond). Also in vogue among collectors are posy rings, which are inscribed with poems and love messages from the Middle Ages until Victorian times. Often the inscriptions are in Latin. In New York there's one customer at the estate jewelry shop Doyle & Doyle who particularly loves these pieces. "She constantly comes in looking for special Victorian or Georgian pieces with original boxes," says store co-owner Elizabeth Doyle. "She goes nuts over anything with a Latin inscription."

Others search for trinkets or jewelry engraved with a certain name. Are you a Mary? A Julia? An Irene? Your search is over.

At the Fred Leighton stores in New York and Las Vegas, people frequently come in looking for personalized vintage pieces. There's currently a gorgeous gold engraved Victorian bracelet just waiting for the right "Elizabeth" to claim it.

After all, eventually everything old becomes new again. So your brand-new engraved pinky ring? Well, that might one day be someone's unique old treasure, too.

Posted on February 13, 2006