Fine Jewelry should mean Fine Jewelry

[1840clb]

Agreed - Good list, and good footnote re.hallmarks/asay.

But what would happen with the US & hallmarks though?

The United States uses a stamp of purity on all fine jewelry which is just as good as any other country's marks. The use of hallmarks from other countries were used to show what country that it belonged to because of them having kings and queens, which is where the hallmark came from. The US does not have king or queens so we use a purity stamp.

[JudesNiceThings]

necklaces made of real pearls or beads of semi-precious stones (coral, turquoise, jade, etc.)?

I would not classify these as 'fine jewellery' - sorry!

[JudesNiceThings]

#61 - Thank you for that - I knew there must be some official mark, but (along with many others) have no idea about it, as not used to dealing with imported fine metals!

[Idealproductsales]

necklaces made of real pearls or beads of semi-precious stones (coral, turquoise, jade, etc.)?

I would not classify these as 'fine jewellery' - sorry!

So, this isn't fine jewelry?
http://www.fortunoff.com/product/Fin...klace-1/437932 ($3,295.00)

or this? http://www.americanpearl.com/mwss12.html ($88,000.00)

Or, even better, wouldn't you agree Queen Elizabeth II would not be wearing anything BUT Fine Jewelry? http://www.karipearls.com/queen-eliz...broadcast.html

There is plenty of high end, extremely fine quality jewelry designed by well know professional jewelers that doesnt contain gold or gemstones...

I'd have to argue that the "fine" in Fine Jewelry refers to the quality of said jewelry, not necessarily its content. You could have a plain old ordinary $150.00 14k gold necklace of a cheap factory made design and put that up against a carefully hand crafted $20,000.00 necklace which has less gold purity , but designed by a world reknowned jeweler.. Which one would you call Fine Jewelry? (especially if your "cheap" gold necklace kept falling apart or links breaking...)

[ElegantScraps]

So, this isn't fine jewelry?
http://www.fortunoff.com/product/Fin...klace-1/437932 ($3,295.00)

or this? http://www.americanpearl.com/mwss12.html ($88,000.00)

Or, even better, wouldn't you agree Queen Elizabeth II would not be wearing anything BUT Fine Jewelry? http://www.karipearls.com/queen-eliz...broadcast.html

There is plenty of high end, extremely fine quality jewelry designed by well know professional jewelers that doesnt contain gold or gemstones...

I'd have to argue that the "fine" in Fine Jewelry refers to the quality of said jewelry, not necessarily its content. You could have a plain old ordinary $150.00 14k gold necklace of a cheap factory made design and put that up against a carefully hand crafted $20,000.00 necklace which has less gold purity , but designed by a world reknowned jeweler.. Which one would you call Fine Jewelry? (especially if your "cheap" gold necklace kept falling apart or links breaking...)

Your first link illustrates my earlier point that clasps in fine jewellery are stamped:

"The necklace measures 18" long and fastens with a 14 karat white gold clasp."

That, in my mind would make it elligible for a gold category in fine jewellery. But, which one?

[JudesNiceThings]

Sorry Ideal! - In my book, Pearls, however 'fine' ( and particularly cultured) are high end costume jewellery!

If they are set in precious metal, that is different - as the metal sets the standard.

[TiasTreasures]

Sorry Ideal! - In my book, Pearls, however 'fine' ( and particularly cultured) are high end costume jewellery!

If they are set in precious metal, that is different - as the metal sets the standard.

Now I'm really confused. I looked up the links in Ideal's post and then did a little more poking around. I found ropes and necklaces of matched, graded, cultured South Sea pearls (especially the rare Black Pearls) frequently cost more than $20,000. The price goes up as the grade increases. This is consistent with my knowledge of jade and turquoise, quality is all-important and each kind of stone has its own grading standards.

This supports my statement that I don't know much about fine jewelry. I would never look for something of this value in "high end costume jewellery". From your post, it appears that a 14K clasp (accounting for almost none of the value), would allow it to be listed as "fine jewellery", but not a long rope of solid pearls with no clasp.

What am I missing here?

[merlin]

I'm so glad everyone doesn't think like that - I've sold quite a lot of gold and silver jewellery for quite reasonable sums of money. Items donated for fundraising are taken to a jeweller for identification, described by the jeweller and then, I'm happy to say, people buy them!

i agree i sold a gold and diamond bracelet on here for £109.99 buyer was really pleased also bought a diamond ring if your title says what the item is then you should have no problems nobody searches fine jewellery either gold , platinum , diamonds in title is enough to find your items

[JudesNiceThings]

Hi Merlin - I think the US are the ones who search for 'fine jewelry' - not us!

I think the annoyance they show is because if they search for 'gold' etc, they find loads of things that are not the real article!

I think if admin REMOVED the 'fine jewellery' wording in the categories, then the confusion would disappear.

[1840clb]

When you just type in GOLD you get gold color, gold plated, rolled gold, Electro plated, hydro plated and every other kind of plating that you can think of, along with the real stuff. For this reason fine jewelry should be reserved for real stamped precious metals and mined gem stones.