Consider taste, budget, and quality when choosing a vintage bracelet. Estate sales offer expensive options with genuine gemstones, while glass pearls and clear rhinestones can be an inexpensive option. Check for missing or loose stones and closures, and look for quality markings on silver bracelets.
To choose the best vintage bracelet, consider your taste and budget, as well as the quality of the pieces of jewelry that interest you. If you’re buying the bracelet online, also think about the fit, since much of the jewelry created decades ago was designed for small wrists. Online jewelry stores, as well as offline thrift stores and estate sales can be good sources for finding an attractive vintage bracelet.
In general, estate sales offer the most expensive options, as vintage bangle bracelets discovered are likely to be made of white or yellow gold and feature genuine gemstones like diamonds or pearls. If you’re looking for a special vintage bracelet, you can find wide gold styles with interesting textures, such as a woven pattern with small stones. Look up the appraised value of the bracelet before you buy. One advantage of choosing a yellow or white gold bracelet with white or clear stones is that you can wear it with any color.
If you prefer colored gemstones, sapphires, amethysts, emeralds, and garnets are often found in vintage bangle bracelets. Look for missing or loose stones in the prong setting. Closures should be easily fastened. Many styles of vintage bracelets with clasps also have a safety chain. This is a good feature to look for in a bracelet because it can prevent the jewelry from falling out if the clasp accidentally comes loose.
Vintage jewelry can be an inexpensive option to purchase bracelets with real gemstones. Glass pearls and clear rhinestones feature in many beautiful vintage bracelet styles, and these sparkling pieces can be an ideal choice to accentuate many different outfits. This style of bracelet usually has a metal clasp with a safety chain that further accentuates the piece. When shopping for bracelets with clasps online, it’s best to first get the inside diameter measurement and compare it to your wrist size to make sure it will fit. Avoid choosing bracelets with rhinestones that appear to have dark spots under them, as this can indicate moisture damage that may not be able to be cleaned.
If you like the look of white or cream-colored pearls, there are vintage pearl glass bracelets that can look very elegant. The two main styles of glass bead cuff bracelets feature strands of beads twisted together or a coiled thread designed to wrap around the wrist. If your style tends to be more artsy than classic, look for a vintage bracelet with different sizes of glass beads. Check the pearls for signs of wear such as chipping, as you may get a lower price if you can live with a few dents.
Other vintage bracelet options in cuff styles include Navajo styles. These often feature many narrow bands of silver on either side of a large oval center stone that may be onyx or turquoise. The most classic types of vintage silver bracelet can be a shaped metal ring that is taller in the center and tapered at the edges. When choosing vintage silver bracelets, look for quality markings such as the numbers “925” as this indicates sterling quality. A wide hammered silver bracelet is often in the shape of a U, which can be an excellent choice, as they are generally much more adjustable to different wrist sizes than clasp-style bracelets.
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