A Guide to Antique Jewellery Eras: Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco & Beyond
One of the loveliest things about antique jewellery is that every era has its own personality.
Some pieces are romantic and sentimental. Others are delicate and refined. Some are bold, geometric and impossible to ignore.
Once you start recognising the clues, you can often get a feel for when a piece was made simply by looking at its shape, materials, gemstones and craftsmanship.
Here’s a simple guide to some of the key jewellery eras you will come across at Kin.
Georgian Jewellery
Approximately 1714 - 1837
Georgian jewellery is the earliest antique jewellery most collectors are likely to encounter, and surviving pieces can be wonderfully rare.
Everything was made by hand, often using techniques that are very different from modern jewellery making.
Typical features include:
closed-back gemstone settings
foil-backed stones designed to enhance colour and sparkle
rose-cut and early old-cut diamonds
silver-topped gold
intricate metalwork
nature-inspired motifs
memorial and sentimental jewellery
Georgian pieces can feel beautifully imperfect.
Stones are often irregular, settings may not be symmetrical, and there is a distinctly handmade quality to them.
Which is, of course, part of the magic.
Because of their age, Georgian pieces also require careful handling. Many were never designed for the way we wear jewellery today, so condition and construction are particularly important when buying.
Victorian Jewellery
1837 - 1901
The Victorian era spans more than 60 years, so its jewellery is wonderfully varied.
Named after Queen Victoria, jewellery from this period was heavily influenced by her life, her marriage to Prince Albert, her family and later her mourning after his death.
You’ll often see Victorian jewellery divided into three broad periods.
Early Victorian
The early years were romantic and sentimental.
Popular motifs included:
flowers
hearts
snakes
bows
hands
birds
lockets
love knots
Gold was widely used, and coloured gemstones such as garnet, turquoise, coral, seed pearl and amethyst were popular.
Snake jewellery became especially fashionable after Prince Albert gave Queen Victoria a serpent engagement ring - the snake traditionally symbolising eternal love.
Mid Victorian
After Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria entered a long period of mourning, and jewellery became noticeably darker.
Black enamel, jet, onyx and mourning jewellery became fashionable. But this period wasn't entirely sombre. Archaeological discoveries and growing fascination with ancient cultures also inspired Egyptian, Etruscan and classical revival jewellery.
Late Victorian
By the end of the century, jewellery became lighter and more playful again.
Diamonds grew increasingly popular, gemstones were used in colourful combinations, and motifs such as stars, crescents, insects, flowers and hearts appeared frequently. It was a wonderfully expressive period, and one of the reasons Victorian jewellery remains so collectible today is its extraordinary variety.
Art Nouveau Jewellery
Approximately 1890 - 1915
Art Nouveau jewellery feels very different from the eras surrounding it.
Rather than focusing primarily on gemstone value, designers often treated jewellery as miniature works of art.
Nature was everywhere.
Think:
flowing flowers
vines
insects
dragonflies
butterflies
birds
feminine figures
sweeping, organic lines
Enamel was particularly important, often combined with opal, pearl, moonstone and other softly coloured gemstones. Many Art Nouveau pieces have an almost dreamlike quality. They are less about perfect symmetry and more about movement, form and imagination. Because the period was relatively short, genuinely fine Art Nouveau jewellery can be especially desirable to collectors.
Edwardian Jewellery
Approximately 1901 - 1915
If Victorian jewellery can be rich and romantic, Edwardian jewellery often feels almost weightless.
Advances in jewellery-making allowed jewellers to create incredibly fine platinum settings that were both strong and delicate.
The result was jewellery that looked almost like lace.
Typical Edwardian characteristics include:
platinum
diamonds
pearls
fine pierced metalwork
milgrain edges
garlands
bows
ribbons
scrolls
floral designs
White-on-white combinations of diamonds, platinum and pearls became particularly fashionable.
Edwardian diamond rings often have a light, airy quality, even when they contain a substantial amount of metal and stone.
Look closely and you will often discover tiny hand-applied milgrain details and intricate piercing that simply isn't obvious from a distance.
It's one of those eras where the closer you look, the better it gets.
Art Deco Jewellery
Approximately 1920 - 1935
Then everything changed.
After the softness of Edwardian design and the First World War, jewellery became bolder, sharper and much more modern.
Art Deco embraced geometry.
You will see:
strong symmetry
straight lines
stepped designs
bold contrast
geometric shapes
platinum
diamonds
emeralds
sapphires
rubies
black onyx
This was also the era of glamorous cocktail rings, diamond bracelets and dramatic evening jewellery.
Old European Cut diamonds were widely used, often alongside calibré-cut coloured gemstones.
There is something incredibly confident about good Art Deco jewellery.
It can be nearly 100 years old and still look completely contemporary.
Which is probably why we never seem to tire of it.
Retro Jewellery
Approximately 1935 -1950
Retro jewellery arrived during a period of enormous social and economic change.
Platinum became difficult to source during the war years, so yellow and rose gold became much more prominent.
Jewellery grew larger and more sculptural.
Typical features include:
bold yellow or rose gold
oversized forms
scrolls and ribbons
chunky bracelets
cocktail rings
large coloured gemstones
rubies, citrine, aquamarine and topaz
Rather than the fine geometry of Art Deco, Retro jewellery often feels glamorous, curvaceous and unapologetically bold.
It's jewellery with presence.
And what about “vintage”?
This is where terminology can get a little confusing.
Generally speaking, jewellery is considered antique when it is around 100 years old or more.
Vintage is a broader term usually used for jewellery that is older but not yet antique.
So an Art Deco ring from the early 1920s may now qualify as antique, while a ring from the 1960s or 1980s would generally be described as vintage.
Dates aren't always exact, and jewellery styles did not suddenly change at midnight when one era ended and another began.
Design periods overlap.
Old-fashioned techniques continued to be used.
New styles emerged gradually.
Which is why identifying jewellery is rarely just about assigning it a date.
Can you always tell an era just by looking?
Not always, and that is important.
A later piece may have been deliberately made in an older style. An antique stone may have been reset into a newer mounting.
Jewellery may have been altered, repaired or remodelled during its lifetime.
When we assess a piece, we look at the whole picture:
construction
metal
hallmarks
gemstone cuts
settings
design
wear
craftsmanship
any signs of later alteration
No single clue tells the entire story.
It is usually the combination that matters.
Which jewellery era is best?
Completely subjective.
Victorian if you love romance, symbolism and individuality.
Edwardian if you are drawn to delicate craftsmanship and intricate detail.
Art Deco if clean lines, geometry and dramatic gemstones are your thing.
Retro if you prefer jewellery to make an entrance.
And many collectors don't choose one era at all.
They simply choose pieces that speak to them.
Which, in our view, is usually the best way to build a jewellery collection.
A little note from Kin
One of the joys of working with antique and vintage jewellery is seeing how dramatically taste has changed, and how often it comes full circle.
A ring made more than a century ago can suddenly feel incredibly modern.
A forgotten symbol becomes meaningful again.
A diamond cut once considered outdated becomes highly sought after.
And every now and then, a piece arrives that doesn't fit neatly into any box at all.
Those are often the most interesting ones.
Because while jewellery eras help us understand where a piece came from, the very best jewellery tends to transcend them.
Explore Kin's antique and vintage jewellery collection and discover which era speaks to you.
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