Ancient jewelry and antique jewelry available to buy online on our website making great gift ideas.  All the jewellery and artefacts we sell on our website are guaranteed authentic.

All are accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity

We professionally clean many of the items we sell. We gently clean these authentic antiquities so you can enjoy and wear them as when they were first made. We show the pieces with their patina before cleaning, so you can see their true authenticity.

You can see the BEFORE cleaning pictures with each item by clicking 'more images' on the product description page.

Please hover over pictures for larger view.

Why we clean

Jewellery History

Since the beginning of time, humans have made use of creating ornamental jewelry for their personal adornment. Traditionally, ancient jewelry displays distinctive character, presents intense artistic images, and carries rich cultural assets through plasticity and expression. However, historically many jewelry items were first created as a means of fastening ones clothing, the display of wealth and status in society as well as for creating storage units for coins and other trinkets in jewelry boxes. It can be seen that various cultures have their own cherished wealthy possessions of precious metals and gemstones. Long ago, wedding dowries included such treasures as the family jewels for a daughter about to be married.

Stylistic evolution from the Early Oriental to Hellenistic-Romanian trends served as a basis for the stylistic changes in the art of jewelry making. Aside from its external beauty properties, every jewellery object has a second, internal life triggered by its semantic significance and perceived through one's mind, intuition or aesthetic sense.

Every artifact serves as a symbol of information. Apotropeic emblems, borrowed from everyday life, epos, or myths, and used in the art of jewelry making, carried a certain magical connotation. Some of the most well-known jewelry makers were the ancient Egyptians, who began incorporating gold into their jewelry, which was one of their most favorite metals to work with, approximately 3,000 to 5,000 years ago.

Meanwhile, the ancient Romans added their own special flair of creative artistry into jewelry making styles, such as the ever popular brooch. However, their pinning creation was born of the need for securely fastening their clothing. The ancient Romans were very fond of imported goods and made beautiful use of such gemstones as diamonds, emeralds, sapphires and amber. Although the majority of Roman men wore one ring upon a finger, however, there were some who wore more, their women usually wore many more pieces of jewelry than they. Rings of that time were often carved of beautiful gemstones, and utilized for sealing documents with an engraved wax seal, as was customary during the middle ages by kings and noblemen alike.

Popularity of a particular mythological plot line was connected to the very zeitgeist of the given time period, since the jewelry maker lived through it and tended to be deeply involved with the contemporary events. The art reflected the master's interests in what was currently happening with the society. Through the evolution of jewellery items it is possible to trace not only the historical and cultural situation, but also economical, political and social sides of ancient civilizations, as well as symbolism and semantics of the art produced.

The ancient masters employed various techniques, including casting, granulation, filigree, and inlay, among others. Certain items of jewelry serve as a testament to the advanced artistic skills of the jewelers. Among precious and semi-precious stones used by jewelers in the ancient world the most popular were garnets, rubies, cornelian stones, pearls and emeralds.