It sparkles, it glitters, it’s glamorous and full of glitz, but is your rhinestone jewelry worth anything? Maybe you inherited a rhinestone bracelet, necklace, or brooch from Grandma. Perhaps you were searching through your jewelry box and discovered a rhinestone pin you purchased long ago. How do you know whether or not Grandma’s Jewelry has any value?
It should be as easy as 1, 2, 3, to know, but it’s not because all you know at this point is that the jewelry piece, shimmers, and glows.
Is It Rhinestone?
Swarovski from Austria introduced rhinestone jewelry in the late 1800s, and his crystals are still one of the most popular and sought-after crystals in today’s marketplace.
Sparkle and shine are not all the same, and if you want high-quality crystal, you want to remember the Swarovski name. Swarovski’s hand-cut the crystals. They weren’t mass-produced. They weren’t all the same. You can recognize Swarovski crystals by the swan logo, on the backside of bracelets and brooches. Same as the following picture.
By the time the 1900s arrived, crystals were machine cut, but Swarovski kept its high-quality manufacturing style, even though the crystals moved from hand-cut to machine-cut works of art.
Initially, crystals were all clear in color but as machinery changed the jewelry manufacturing field, the crystals became a juxtaposition of colors. Dazzling jewels and sparkling colors lined the marketplace.
What should you look for in evaluating Rhinestone Jewelry value?
Look at the bubbles or cracks in a rhinestone piece. You want to find sparkling clear crystals, that glitter in the sunshine. You don’t want bubbles and you don’t want cracks. Smooth clear rhinestones are best.
Look at the prongs
Crystals and rhinestones set in prongs should be evenly spaced. Are bends in the prongs? The facets in rhinestones should be perfect points, with even spaces, and, unique shapes.
Look at the name
Some designers are known for high-quality rhinestone jewelry because extraordinary care was taken in crafting designs. Names like Eisenberg, Coro, Boucher, Hobe, are some of the highest quality rhinestone jewelry manufacturers you can find.
Look at the time period
Art Deco designs are very popular today. These were costume jewelry designs, where the Rhinestones were cut into geometric shapes.
Art Deco was very popular in the 1920s. It’s really the time period when rhinestone jewelry had a huge boom in the marketplace.
Shimmering colors, floral motifs, geometric lines, and abstract designs popularized the art deco times.
Check out the Internet
Some rhinestone jewelry value can be less than 25.00, but many of the high-quality names will cost significantly more money. Look at what has been sold on eBay, Etsy to get an idea of what your rhinestone jewelry piece will sell for.
Browse great range of Rhinestone Jewelry on eBay
Consult Price Guides
Jeanene Bell has written an excellent book on pricing old jewelry, called Old Jewelry.
I highly recommend this book. Beware that printed price guides can be out of date before they hit the marketplace, but they do provide a guide to evaluating rhinestone jewelry prices.
Bottomline
Rhinestone jewelry prices vary depending upon the name of the designer, the quality of the rhinestones, and the time period when they were produced. You can be sure that if the rhinestones sparkle and shine, they have market value, but the amount of value depends upon quality, name, and time.
You must be logged in to post a comment.