Are English charms better than American ones?
Jewelry November 24th, 2007
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’s 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’t put effort into and wasn’t 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’re sterling silver, exactly the same as the hallmarked pieces, but just haven’t gone though the assay process. I’ve 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’s there, a bonus.
What’s 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’ll 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’s 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’t 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’t hesitate to mix Continental silver with sterling. As for .800 silver being worth less than sterling—believe 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—or not entirely—though many people confuse the two, and you’ll certainly see the term “patina” 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’s rich-looking and it marks a piece as older (if you wanted new-looking, you wouldn’t 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—darkening—of 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’ve got yourself a dirty charm. In between the extremes of shiny-bright and black, neither of which in my opinion is desirable, there’s 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—and if so, how?
Again, it’s 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’s 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’ve ever gotten a pink-frosted charm, that’s why). And they offer no advantages over a jewelry polishing cloth.
And remember—the 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—give 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’m 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” it. Better to just forget it. It’s 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.
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