How to Research and Identify Unmarked or Unsigned Jewelry - Episode #76

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Jewelry resellers podcast, Your Go To Source for all things shiny, sparkly and of course profitable.

[00:00:08] I'm your host Desiree and I'll be your guide on this dazzling journey through the world of reselling jewelry.

[00:00:15] We'll be diving deep into the art and science of reselling, uncovering valuable tips, insider secrets and sharing stories from successful jewelry resellers.

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[00:00:37] So if you're dreaming of turning your hobby into a hustle or if you're a seasoned pro looking to stay at the top of your jewelry reselling game,

[00:00:46] Join me each week for insights, stories and more on the jewelry resellers podcast.

[00:00:56] Hello and welcome to another episode of The Jewelry resellers podcast.

[00:01:01] My name is Desiree and you know I always like to say that I am your jewelry reselling bestie.

[00:01:08] Today we are going to talk about how to research unmarked or unsigned jewelry.

[00:01:15] Because I know when I was first getting started in this, that was probably the hardest part of trying to figure this whole thing out.

[00:01:24] It is very overwhelming, especially when you don't have a lot of jewelry knowledge or if you only are familiar with one brand or one type of jewelry.

[00:01:36] And then you also have to figure out not only how to identify the piece but then you have to figure out how much is it selling for where do people buy or look for this type of jewelry.

[00:01:48] So there's really a lot of things to take into consideration as it relates to researching jewelry and then figuring out a fair price that still is going to work for you and something that's going to work for your buyer.

[00:02:07] All right, so that's what we're going to cover today.

[00:02:08] So before we get started, you know I always like to remind you to head on over to our website which is jewelry resellerspodcast.com.

[00:02:17] Because there you're going to find a lot of information that's going to help you as a jewelry reseller and if you are just getting started.

[00:02:28] You may want to sign up for our newsletter because when you do, you will have access to an instant download that is a list of the 20 best selling vintage jewelry brands that I think all resellers should know.

[00:02:43] All right, so if you are interested in that or anything else as it relates to jewelry reselling because you can also listen to all of the past episodes there as well.

[00:02:54] All you've got to do is head on over to jewelry resellerspodcast.com and I will put a link in the show notes as well as the description of this video if you are listening on YouTube.

[00:03:08] All right, so let's get into today's topic. Again, we're talking about how to research or how to identify unmarked or unsign jewelry and there's a lot of things that you can.

[00:03:23] I guess look at initially when you are trying to figure out who makes this piece is this something that's vintage, is it not vintage.

[00:03:33] And so I'm going to give you a list of some things that I have kind of learned on my own as well as talking to other jewelry resellers who are very successful at this.

[00:03:43] And then doing my own research online, I'm going to share with you some of the things that have helped me to figure out how to identify a piece of jewelry.

[00:03:54] All right, so the first thing we want to do is to really examine and study the piece closely.

[00:03:59] All right, now if you don't have what is known as a Jewelers loop and that's L-O-U-P-E or a magnifying glass or something like that, you really want to invest in that.

[00:04:13] Because it's going to help you really study a piece and look at things close up.

[00:04:20] And you'll be able to see little distinct features and details that you may not notice or really be able to see, you know, just with your eye.

[00:04:33] Okay, so you want to invest in something that's going to help you look at a piece closely.

[00:04:40] All right, you want to look for any type of marks or symbols.

[00:04:44] Again, you want to use the Jewelers loop if you have one I always recommend getting one with a built-in light because it is very helpful.

[00:04:52] And sometimes marks on jewelry can be hidden or they could be kind of worn down or worn off or maybe partially there, you know, just do to some age of the piece or depending on how the piece wears over time.

[00:05:11] So this is something you want to look at closely.

[00:05:13] Now not every piece of jewelry is going to have a mark, a signature, a symbol or a tag or anything like that.

[00:05:21] So that's always the first thing we want to consider is to look and see if there is any type of identifying mark on the piece.

[00:05:32] All right, now the next thing we want to look at is the material and we want to assess the material that the jewelry piece is made of.

[00:05:43] Now I've talked about this before where you can buy testing kits if you have maybe an idea of whether or not the piece is real gold, real silver, platinum, whatever.

[00:05:56] They do sell testing kits that you can use at home and they're very inexpensive and fairly easy to use although sometimes people worry about damaging the piece, especially with those scratch tests and so forth.

[00:06:09] So again, you want to make sure that if you are going to test the piece of jewelry that you have some type of I guess a little bit of knowledge and thinking that maybe this is something worth testing.

[00:06:24] You can also use what I like to use which is the the jewelry tester magnet and I always use that first before I do any type of further testing.

[00:06:35] And the jewelry magnet will let you know whether or not the piece is gold plated if it is real gold or silver and again if it's if it is real gold or silver the magnet will not stick.

[00:06:46] Of course sometimes the class may not necessarily be real gold but maybe the necklace part is so again just kind of develop your own kind of filtering or testing system or routine.

[00:07:04] So that way you can really evaluate the particular metals or materials that the jewelry piece is made of.

[00:07:14] Now you also want to look at the gemstones if the piece does have gemstones and we've talked about this on previous episodes of the podcast.

[00:07:22] But learning how to recognize authenticity of certain types of gemstones will be very helpful in your research of this particular jewelry piece.

[00:07:33] Alright so you can see that knowledge will take time for you to develop as you are doing this. This is not something that will happen quickly for a lot of us you know for for me it's taken years for me to figure out all of this stuff and I'm still learning and the more I learn I've said it before the more I realize how much I don't know.

[00:07:56] Alright so the next thing we want to look at is the style now you want to have a base knowledge of the different jewelry eras or styles.

[00:08:07] You know for example art deco, Victorian whatever you know you want to have a little bit of knowledge as it relates to that.

[00:08:18] Now you may not you know you could be starting from scratch here and that's okay too, but once you start looking at more pieces you'll start to recognize the different eras and the different styles of certain designers and things like that.

[00:08:32] Alright so you want to compare the jewelry piece that you're researching maybe with similar jewelry pieces online or sometimes in reference books okay and we've talked about books too on the podcast.

[00:08:44] Alright, next up you want to consult with experts okay now.

[00:08:50] Again this may or may not really apply to the jewelry piece that you're looking at or trying to figure out what it is but sometimes if it is a high end or really valuable or unique looking piece you could reach out to jewel you know jewelers maybe in a jewelry store appraisers or even online jewelry forms or groups.

[00:09:11] And maybe you can get some information that way now I'm going to talk about that a little bit later on how that has been helpful for me and that has been one of the best ways for me to learn about specific jewelry pieces.

[00:09:25] Now you also want to look at the design features of a piece some designs or the construction techniques are unique to certain makers or certain regions or countries or designers or wherever.

[00:09:40] Alright so this again this is going to be something that's going to take you time to develop as you learn and you start to recognize certain designs and certain patterns and certain types of you know the way the jewelry is arranged.

[00:09:57] Alright now the next thing I want you to think about is to compare with signed pieces of jewelry.

[00:10:04] So let's say you have something that is unsigned but then you find something online or maybe in your inventory or your collection and it looks kind of similar to a signed piece that you have already.

[00:10:16] You can look for the similarities in the craftsmanship the materials the designs sometimes just comparing the pieces will help you identify unsigned pieces.

[00:10:31] Now here's what you do have to be careful though because sometimes pieces will be made as reproductions of other pieces that are signed or well known.

[00:10:43] Alright and you can usually tell by the weight of the piece or sometimes you can see that it may not be as well made as the original piece that it is quote unquote a copycat version of.

[00:10:55] Okay so again this is going to take you some time to develop and this should be an enjoyable process for the most part I mean if it feels like a chore.

[00:11:06] You know maybe you may want to put your research aside until you know you feel like like you actually want to do it.

[00:11:13] But I really enjoy doing this kind of thing because it helps me to learn and again the more I learned.

[00:11:22] I just I just realize that it just helps me in every other aspect of jewelry reselling okay so.

[00:11:31] Keep that in mind as you're doing your research and try not to overwhelm yourself either by trying to figure out everything there is to know about a particular piece or a particular designer or something like that.

[00:11:46] Alright next up you do want to check historical records if there are some available now this is where we're getting into some more higher end and take jewelry pieces because sometimes libraries museums even people who have collections, you know.

[00:12:02] They will have documents records or archives that could help identify unmarked pieces again I don't think a lot of us are going to be dealing with this type of jewelry on a daily basis.

[00:12:17] But sometimes you will come across something extraordinary and you may want to see if you can find some historical documents on the piece alright and this is where like I said things get really fun for me because I'm kind of a geek in this way.

[00:12:33] And I really do enjoy researching you know historical records for jewelry pieces and like who owned it and who made it and why and who wore this and why you know and all of those things I just find so fascinating.

[00:12:50] Now the other thing you may want to use as it relates to identifying unmarked jewelry is online databases or online platforms alright so you can actually research a lot just by scrolling pages and pages of listings on eBay or Etsy.

[00:13:10] Even posh mark, mccari to some degree alright so a lot of times you will find a lot of information about a jewelry piece by looking it up on eBay and again I think this is where a lot of us find the majority of our information.

[00:13:26] We look to see if someone else is selling the same identical piece of jewelry and then you can read their description and find out what information they have on the piece that will help you identify your piece or create your description in your listing.

[00:13:43] Now of course you don't want to literally just copy somebody's description however I do know you know sellers who do that.

[00:13:52] I do think that we should use other listings more as a guide and a resource and not you know copy it word for word but again.

[00:14:02] So your business you can do whatever it is you want to do but I have found that it is very helpful to search the listings like I said on some of these online reselling platforms and you can find a lot of information that way as well.

[00:14:20] Alright my next tip is to look for patents again this may or may not apply some jewelry designs were patented depending on the time period that they were made and depending on which brand too because I know Monet.

[00:14:33] They had patented a certain type of class and so whenever I see that class even if I don't know that it's a Monet piece I can instantly recognize that that particular class is from Monet.

[00:14:48] So you will start learning things like that because there are certain things that like I said were patented depending on certain jewelry brands and certain jewelry designs and you can also search these online as well.

[00:15:02] Alright now the other thing I want to throw out there too is be very patient with yourself.

[00:15:09] I know a lot of us we get really excited and we get anxious to get our jewelry listed so we can turn around and sell it and make the money and that's all wonderful but you're going to have to give yourself time and be patient with yourself while you are going through this process because it is overwhelming and there is so much information out there.

[00:15:32] And there are thousands upon thousands of different types of jewelry out there and so it will take you time to kind of sift through all the things before you find exactly the information that you're looking for.

[00:15:46] So try not to rush and don't do yourself a disservice by just throwing up something you know a listing and you may not know a whole lot about it but you just say hey this is a goal necklace with,

[00:16:01] I don't know a pearl or something like that and don't do yourself a disservice by not taking the time to research.

[00:16:08] Now I understand not everybody has all the time in the world but you do want to make sure that you at least try because like I said it's going to help you not only with that particular jewelry piece but with future jewelry pieces that you come across and that you want to buy collect or sell.

[00:16:30] All right, so those are my initial tips for how to research unsigned or unmarked jewelry.

[00:16:41] Now I do have a few other things that I want to discuss with you that I think will be very helpful.

[00:16:46] So we talked about examining the construction and the materials of the piece and you want to look for distinctive characteristics.

[00:16:53] Again, these are things that could be unique to a particular designer or a particular jewelry brand.

[00:17:00] So things like the construction we talked about that certain clasps we talked about that.

[00:17:07] Also stone placement we want to look at the settings we want to look at how the stones are set.

[00:17:15] You also want to look at things like the prongs or the cups that the stones are in because you will be able to tell a well made piece versus a maybe not so well made piece just by things like that little details like the prongs or the crimped stone cups so to speak.

[00:17:36] Also, you can look at the color and the tone of the metal.

[00:17:42] You know when when gold tone jewelry is real yellowy that probably is a huge indicator that it's not real gold or something that's gold plated.

[00:17:53] But again, these will be things that you learn over time.

[00:17:57] Okay and you want to look at unique clasps, different types of closures we talked about that types of metals stones and other materials used.

[00:18:09] Okay, now the other thing I want to mention is really study.

[00:18:16] Like I mentioned earlier, the overall design we want to look at the piece as a whole you want to look at the individual components of the piece but then you want to look at the overall design style and quality of the piece.

[00:18:30] All right, you want to really compare it to the things that maybe you do know as it relates to jewelry, especially from a similar time period or a similar designer.

[00:18:43] And once you get used to really looking at jewelry pieces as a whole, you will start to develop a very keen eye for recognizing certain parts of you know,

[00:19:00] jewelry designer or whatever the case may be.

[00:19:03] All right, we talked about using reference books and online resources.

[00:19:11] Some really good books that I know of are the warmins, costume jewelry guide.

[00:19:15] I love that book.

[00:19:17] I have checked it out several times here in my local library.

[00:19:21] And I probably should buy it, but I always just I always just end up borrowing it and then returning it and then borrowing it again.

[00:19:29] You also want to look for books on specific designers like Maryam Haskell or Schreiner or Giuliana.

[00:19:36] And then also I talked about the online databases and you know sometimes there's photo galleries online of jewelry marks and jewelry signatures.

[00:19:48] All right, so we talked about the totality of the piece.

[00:19:51] Remember, we're looking at the design, the construction, the materials and the quality of the jewelry piece.

[00:19:57] And you don't want to rely on just one factor like the type of class, all right, because I have seen really beautiful jewelry pieces with a very cheap class, like really nice higher end necklaces, vintage jewelry necklaces.

[00:20:12] And let's say the original class broke off or whatever.

[00:20:17] And sometimes people will replace the class and it may not be the same quality as the original class, but maybe it was all they can find, whatever the case may be.

[00:20:26] So you really want to make sure you look at the totality of the piece, okay?

[00:20:31] Again, I talked about looking for Mark Stamps, you know, hang tags if they are available, if they are attached.

[00:20:40] And looking at the time period that the piece likely came from, okay?

[00:20:47] And you know again, this is where it's going to take you time because you're going to have to learn the style, the era and the designs.

[00:21:00] Now one of the things that I want to encourage you to do is to just look at as many signs jewelry pieces as you can.

[00:21:11] You may want to go to a antique mall, you may want to maybe look at things online like we talked about like on eBay.

[00:21:21] You can put in a designer like I said, you can put in Traffari, Monet and just scroll the listings and look at some of those jewelry pieces because you'll start to recognize a common theme or a common style amongst those pieces of jewelry.

[00:21:37] All right, and that's how I have learned a lot too. Just like I said, scrolling the listings of eBay both sold and unsold.

[00:21:48] All right, we talked about having pieces examined by a professional jeweler or an appraiser if you feel like your piece warrants that, you know, even some type of jewelry historian even, you know, to get some expert advice and expert opinions

[00:22:08] and input. But again, I think a lot of us are not dealing with those types of pieces, at least not now, but that's always an option if you do come across something.

[00:22:19] All right, the other thing I want to share is which I do this all the time and that's Google lens or reverse image search if you're looking at a piece online.

[00:22:33] Now, Google lens has been hugely helpful for me as it relates to identifying jewelry pieces and I may not know anything about it.

[00:22:44] So always do a Google lens search, you know, even when you're out sourcing or maybe you're out shopping and you come across a piece and you don't want to buy it because you don't know a whole lot about it.

[00:22:54] You can always take a photo of it and then run it through Google lens and see what comes up and see what you learn and see, you know, oh, this is a piece from such and such design or this looks very similar to a high end piece that could be very valuable.

[00:23:10] All right, so Google lens is your friend. It's one of the things like I said I recommend all the time and when you're using Google lens, make sure you take a picture of the front and the back of the piece. Now that's a tip that a lot of people don't know about is like if you're trying to look for something, sometimes you'll take a picture of the front and then nothing will come up but surprisingly if you flip it over like a brooch or maybe a pendant or something.

[00:23:40] Like that, take a picture of the back as well and run the back side photo through Google lenses. Well because sometimes things will come up with a photo of the back versus a photo of the front of the piece and I've had this happen several times when I've been stuck and then I realize oh you know, I can find out about the piece by taking a photo of the back side as well.

[00:24:05] All right, another thing that I think has been hugely helpful for me and that is posting a pick and ask asking questions in Facebook groups. Now there are hundreds upon hundreds of Facebook jewelry groups, you know, on Facebook and let me tell you those people are so knowledgeable and they are so helpful.

[00:24:26] I highly recommend that you do use those groups to your advantage and see what people may know and see what they are willing to share with you as it relates to helping you identify your piece.

[00:24:42] And then there's people in those groups who are already knowledgeable and experts as it relates to certain jewelry brands or styles or errors or whatever.

[00:24:52] And sometimes they can look at a piece and instantly rat aloft two paragraphs of information as it relates to that particular piece. So use the Facebook jewelry groups to your advantage and don't hesitate to maybe, like I said, throw up a picture of the piece you have in question and see if anybody can help you identify it.

[00:25:16] All right, so we talked about a lot today and the key is really to look at the piece holistically and compare it to what you do know or compare it to known similar types of jewelry that are out there right now.

[00:25:33] And of course with practice and time you will develop a trained eye for recognizing the hallmarks of different designers and manufacturers and things like that.

[00:25:45] All right, so like I said, you're going to have to be patient because this is a process and this is something that will take time.

[00:25:53] But it's really fun and it should be an enjoyable process for you. Now, not all the time it's going to be fun and enjoyable but from the most part it's really just enlightening and it really is something that's going to help you be a better reseller just because you're going to have so much more knowledge about the pieces that you're sourcing, the pieces that you're buying and collecting and then eventually selling.

[00:26:22] All right, so if you have some tips.

[00:26:27] You know to help make this process easier or things that you have learned in your journey of being a jewelry reseller and researching and trying to identify unmarked or unsigned pieces please share your tips in the comments.

[00:26:43] Because I would love to know more about what you guys are doing that could potentially help me identify pieces that I know nothing about.

[00:26:54] And in closing, I do want to say this that sometimes you will find a gorgeous jewelry piece and you will go through all of the things as it relates to trying to figure out who made it, who's the designer and all of that.

[00:27:11] And you may exhaust all of your resources and still not have an answer or still not get any more information.

[00:27:19] And sometimes you have to be prepared to acknowledge that a certain piece, you know the origins of it may forever be a mystery and that's okay.

[00:27:33] But sometimes I know it's very frustrating because you know you spend all this time looking and researching and then you realize I still can't find anything about this piece and it's it's gorgeous or it's so unique.

[00:27:48] But sometimes that happens sometimes you just have to be at peace with doing all that you have done and realizing I just don't know anymore and I don't know what else to do.

[00:28:01] And that has happened that has happened to a lot of us, you know on this journey but it doesn't mean anything.

[00:28:08] Sometimes pieces will remain a mystery as it relates to their origins and then you will tuck it away and then you'll pull it out again months or years later and then suddenly you find information on it.

[00:28:21] So that has happened to a lot of us as well.

[00:28:24] All right friends, while I hope you enjoyed this episode and I hope it was helpful.

[00:28:29] Again, if you have any questions or comments or feedback or anything I would love to hear from you.

[00:28:37] And again, if you have not checked out the website that's jewelry resellerspodcast.com, I invite you to head on over there because I do have lots of amazing information and content for you and all kinds of stuff over there.

[00:28:54] All right, I want to thank you so much for spending this time with me and I will check in with you again really soon.