If you collect vintage gold or silver charms or charm bracelets, you're bound to have questions about practical matters like selecting a bracelet, attaching your charms, cleaning and care, and so on. Here are my answers to the questions I'm asked most often. There are no pretty photos here (for that you have to see my other guides), because this is about the technical side of charm collecting鈥攋ust the FAQs, ma'am!
This guide is in two parts, of which this is the first. At the bottom of the page you'll find a link to Part II.
What exactly is a vintage charm?
Loosely speaking, it鈥檚 anything that's neither new nor antique, but somewhere in between. An antique charm is generally accepted to be about a hundred years old at minimum, or to date at least to before the end of World War I, and I think it鈥檚 an important distinction to maintain; I shudder when I see charms from the forties described as antique. I鈥檝e also seen charms that are five years old described as vintage, which is pushing it: what they are is used. Call them estate charms if you like, but calling them vintage is deceptive. Many wonderful vintage charms are not in fact that old; some of the best English charms, for example, were made in the sixties and seventies, even into the eighties. They may not be very old, but they're definitely vintage鈥攖hey鈥檝e been dangling around on bracelets for at least a couple of decades, developing patina.
There鈥檚 also what's known as new old stock鈥攁 charm that's genuinely old but has never been used, hidden away in a jeweler's back room or the like for decades. It won鈥檛 have the wonderful soft patina of a charm worn for years, but it certainly is vintage.
How many charms should I put on a bracelet?
It鈥檚 a matter of personal taste and style. I鈥檝e seen great bracelets that had each charm set off with enough space around it so that it stood out, and bracelets on which you couldn鈥檛 stick another charm if you had to. I personally usually like to be able to see every charm without having to move things aside; my preference is for bracelets that are pretty full but not so full that the individual charms turn into one great mass of confused silver. Charms disappear for years on bracelets like that: 鈥淚 know I have an Eiffel Tower on here somewhere. . . .鈥?I think it鈥檚 better at that point to divide the charms among two or even three bracelets鈥攄ivide that travel bracelet into US, Europe, and Everywhere Else, say. You can also wear more than one bracelet at a time鈥攐ne on each wrist, of course, but also two on the same one if they complement each other, which is often a better solution than one bracelet with sixty charms on it.
One other suggestion: fill your bracelet with the charms that are meaningful to you, of course, but have some fillers in with the killers. By that I mean to include some simpler, smaller charms along with the bigger mechanical charms. When I make a bracelet for someone on commission, I start out with the larger, important charms, but I make sure to space them out with simpler pieces to set them off鈥攃oins, wishbones, keys, shields, whatever fits with the bracelet鈥檚 theme. I think it makes for a much more attractive bracelet.
What kind of bracelet should I use?
There鈥檚 no question that vintage charms look best on a vintage bracelet. If you鈥檙e assembling just one charm bracelet (or think you are . . . just wait!), the charms you collect will probably be of different ages and possibly from different countries; in that case, pick whatever bracelet appeals to you. If you collect charms from a particular time or place, though, I think it鈥檚 nice to wear them on a bracelet that matches. For example, although I love English padlock bracelets, American charms from the forties will not display to best effect on them; a more delicate bracelet with a smaller link is what they would have been worn on in their era, and it鈥檚 what they look best on. If you collect Victorian charms, they deserve a Victorian bracelet. Heart charms were hung from delicate bracelets in the thirties and forties, but in Victorian times they were most often attached to bangles fitted with fixed loops, or else worn on the lightweight but substantial chased-link bracelets of the day, fastened with a heart-shaped padlock closure. There are beautiful bracelets of Continental .800 or .835 silver if you鈥檙e making a bracelet of European travel charms. Fifties gold charms show to best effect on the relatively chunky chains of the decade. It鈥檚 by no means crucial that you match the bracelet to the charm collection, but if you have a special collection, it鈥檚 a lovely refinement.
How do you know how old a charm is?
You can鈥檛 always tell, but there are clues that can help, especially if the charm is on a bracelet. Partly it鈥檚 stylistic鈥攃harms made in the forties look quite different from those made in the sixties, by and large鈥攂ut there are other giveaways, like hallmarks, makers鈥?marks, the style of clasp, any engraving present, and so on. Of course, you can be misled; new charms can be put on an old bracelet, and Victorian charms can be put on a new bracelet. One thing to watch out for, if you buy a vintage bracelet with charms, is someone who tells you that the bracelet is a 1920s one, say, because one of the charms has a twenties date on it. Look at the context鈥攄oes it really look like an old charm on an old bracelet? Or was the bracelet given to Grandma in 1988, for her sixty-fifth birthday, with a charm on it engraved with her birth date in 1923? And the dates of coins on a bracelet are with a few exceptions meaningless for dating that bracelet. Hardly anyone takes a newly minted dime and makes it into a charm; they use an interesting old one they find, or perhaps one with their birth date or that of a parent.
What about r茅pouss茅 hearts鈥攈ow do I know how old those are?
R茅pouss茅 hearts, also called puffed or puffy hearts, present the biggest problem in dating, because so many of them have been reproduced. There are noticeable stylistic differences between charms of different eras, though with plenty of overlap, but unless you鈥檙e pretty expert, it鈥檚 very hard to tell if an individual heart was made in 1938 or 1998. A reliable indication of a truly vintage heart is engraving, and the style of the engraving itself can narrow the date down. So can the name鈥攁 Betty Jean heart isn鈥檛 going to be as old as a Bella one, most likely. Hearts are dated incorrectly more than any other charms鈥攑robably more often from ignorance than from a deliberate attempt at fraud鈥攕o be careful. Just because something is ornate doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 Victorian; about 90 per cent of the hearts I see identified as Victorian are in fact 1940s hearts, or even repros of 1940s hearts.
Can I have the engraved name buffed off an old heart if it means nothing to me and have it replaced with a meaningful one?
Maybe. But most hearts are thin-walled, and most old engraving has depth. You run a real risk of the heart collapsing, if not during the buffing then during the re-engraving. More to the point, I think it鈥檚 a terrible shame to do this with any old engraving; you鈥檙e defiling the piece, dishonoring the real person who cared enough to buy the heart, have it engraved, and give it to someone they cared about. If a lovely old heart is engraved 鈥淗arvey鈥?and that was your favorite uncle鈥檚 name, that鈥檚 wonderful, and you鈥檙e fortunate indeed. But if you鈥檝e never known a Harvey in your life, who cares? The charm is a beauty, the engraving is an irreproducible piece of exquisite handwork, and you can look at it and wonder about who that long-ago Harvey was.
Are English charms better than American ones?
No, especially when it comes to gold charms. But when it comes to silver charms made in the second half of the twentieth century, English ones are generally of better design and better craftsmanship than American-made ones. There are numerous exceptions to this, but it鈥檚 a valid statement in my opinion. What I often call, jokingly but seriously, the Great Age of English Charms lasted from the late 1950s to approximately the end of the 1970s; most of the clever, well-made English charms here date to that period. The Great Age of American Charms, to me, was the forties.
And as for Victorian and Edwardian charms, no matter where they come from, they're almost all magnificent.
Are English charms and bracelets with hallmarks more valuable than ones without?
Not intrinsically. The value of a hallmark is that it tells you three things explicitly: that the article is guaranteed to have met the standard for sterling silver or for the fineness of gold indicated by the mark, that it was assayed at a particular place, and that it was assayed in a certain year (nearly always the year it was made). So it does guarantee the age and origin of the piece. It also implies that the maker valued the piece enough to have it assayed, which costs him something, and which he therefore would be unlikely to do with something he hadn鈥檛 put effort into and wasn鈥檛 proud of. So a hallmark on a charm or charm bracelet is definitely a positive thing.
On the other hand, the absence of one means nothing much. The majority of English sterling charms have no markings, or at most are marked SILVER or SIL. They鈥檙e sterling silver, exactly the same as the hallmarked pieces, but just haven鈥檛 gone though the assay process. I鈥檝e seen bracelets with no markings at all that were better made and nicer in every way than bracelets with lions passant rampaging on every available surface. So choose your English silver or gold jewelry on the basis of whether you like it or not, and consider a hallmark, if it鈥檚 there, a bonus.
What鈥檚 the difference between sterling and .800 silver? And what is rhodium?
Sterling silver is 92.5 percent pure silver and 7 percent other metals, alloyed with the silver to make it harder and more durable; you鈥檒l sometimes see it called .925 silver, and some silver pieces are marked that way, especially ones made in recent years. English silver is by law sterling, whether or not it鈥檚 marked as such (most charms being unmarked). American silver is also sterling silver. On the Continent, the silver standard varies but is usually .800, .830, or .835 (the number indicates the percentage of pure silver, as it does with .925 sterling). Although Continental silver often looks a bit different from sterling, it doesn鈥檛 always, since sterling itself can vary in color depending on what other metals are used with the silver (English silver always appears a bit warmer in color to me than American silver). I don鈥檛 hesitate to mix Continental silver with sterling. As for .800 silver being worth less than sterling鈥攂elieve me, silver itself is worth peanuts in the quantity used in a charm. The price, and worth, of vintage silver charms has nothing to do with their melt value.
Rhodium is a metal that has been used since the 1920s (with a break during World War II, when it was declared a strategic metal and so wasn't used in jewelry) to plate some silver to keep it from tarnishing. It works. And if you like your silver mirror-bright, it can be the way to go. If you prefer a softer glow to your silver, keep in mind that a rhodium-plated piece will only begin to develop any patina at all after years and years of wear, and maybe not even then. Interestingly, rhodium is itself far more expensive than silver, so its use in no way indicates that the charm plated with it is inferior.
What is patina?
Patina is not tarnish鈥攐r not entirely鈥攖hough many people confuse the two, and you鈥檒l certainly see the term 鈥減atina鈥?used to mean tarnish pure and simple. Patina really consists of the thousands of minuscule scratches that silver or gold develops over years of use. The scratches break up a very even, mirrorlike surface into something soft and luscious and velvety. Patina is desirable because it鈥檚 rich-looking and it marks a piece as older (if you wanted new-looking, you wouldn鈥檛 buy vintage). But when it comes to silver, a degree of darkening needs to be present for patina really to be visible.
Tarnish is oxidation鈥攄arkening鈥攐f the silver by chemical compounds, chiefly sulfides in the air. Tarnish has its pros and cons. You want the low-lying areas on a charm to darken, because that gives the charm dimensionality and accents the patina (if you clean a well-patinaed charm with a chemical dip or an ultrasonic cleaner, it will temporarily look like a new charm). But when a charm turns completely black with tarnish, you鈥檝e got yourself a dirty charm. In between the extremes of shiny-bright and black, neither of which in my opinion is desirable, there鈥檚 a wide range. Where you like to have your charms within that range is a matter of personal taste.
Does that mean I should polish my charms鈥攁nd if so, how?
Again, it鈥檚 up to you (but note that with genuinely old silver jewelry, polishing it can seriously lower the value of the piece, and therefore I never polish the jewelry I sell; I leave it up to the buyer to decide what, if anything, to do). I do polish my own overly dark charms, using a jewelry polishing cloth. This gives you great control, because it鈥檚 a gradual process; you remove just as much tarnish as you want because you work slowly. It also removes tarnish only from the higher surfaces of a charm, leaving the low areas dark and accentuating the vintage look of the silver; this holds true even if you polish the high surfaces to a bright shine. If you have a stubborn black spot on a charm that you want to remove, barely touch a corner of the cloth with a drop of water; the slight dampness will make the job easier. These cloths work beautifully on gold too.
Chemical silver or jewelry dips, as well as ultrasonic jewelry cleaners, are undesirable for use on silver and on some gold for two reasons: not only do they get rid of every vestige of darkening, but they can also damage enameled surfaces and loosen stones. Avoid them like the plague if you're cleaning anything they might compromise. Liquid or paste silver polishes can be okay, used judiciously, but they tend to leave a hard-to-remove residue in the crevices of the charms (if you鈥檝e ever gotten a pink-frosted charm, that鈥檚 why). And they offer no advantages over a jewelry polishing cloth.
And remember鈥攖he more you wear your silver charms, the less likely they are to need polishing.
Is there anything I can do to darken an overcleaned silver charm, or make a new one darker so it fits in with my vintage ones?
Sure鈥攇ive it to a smoker, or send it to an urban friend. In a few months the pollutants in the air will turn it as dark as you want (no, I鈥檓 not joking)!
There are chemicals that can be used to oxidize a charm, but I'm opposed to their use and don't recommend them. Just give the silver time, and it will tone down.
Is there anything I can do to repair damaged enameling on a charm?
Just leave it alone. Anything you do will probably make it look worse than it did before you "fixed鈥?it. Better to just forget it. It鈥檚 a vintage charm, remember? And if you alter an old charm, you lower its value. I've seen vintage charms that have been painted by unscrupulous dealers trying to make a few extra bucks, and they look ridiculous; anyone who knows old charms can tell they're fakes from a mile away.
This is Part I of a two-part guide. To continue on, click here: Part II.
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If you found this guide helpful, you might also enjoy reading my other three guides for vintage charm collectors.
What are my vintage charm credentials? I've been a collector and dealer for years, and started eBay's Vintage Charms & Charm Bracelets group, which I lead. I was the technical advisor for Charms and Charm Bracelets: The Complete Guide, by Joanne Schwartz (Schiffer Books, 2005), which includes many photos of charms from my collection, and together with Joanne lectured on antique and vintage charm bracelets at the 2005 Vintage Fashion and Costume Jewelry convention in Providence, RI. I'm a member of eBay's jewelry category Voices program.
And yes, I adore vintage charms!
Important note! The Items from eBay Sellers shown to the right of this guide are chosen by eBay, not by me, so please don't assume that I have anything to do with their selection, or that I endorse them in any way.
Copyright 漏 2003-2006 gelatogrrl. This material may not be reproduced in any form, or linked to electronically, without the express written permission of the author.
Orignal From: Charm FAQs I for Vintage Charm Bracelet Collectors
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