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Vintage Jewelry Finds from Turkey: Grand Bazaar Energy
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items Grand Bazaar energy, without the flight. I was born and grew up in Turkey, and the thing I love most about jewellery here is that nobody is trying to make it minimal — colour is the whole point, the gold is warm and properly yellow rather than pale, ...
Sections
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Earrings, to start
Rings that are mostly about colour
Old gold, old cuts
Earrings, to start
If you've never bought jewellery from a seller halfway across the world, start here rather than with a ring — there's no size to get wrong and no measuring involved. One pair is quiet enough to wear every day and the other is the kind you put on for ...
The entry point, and the pair I'd start anyone on. Small, warm-toned, just enough sparkle to catch the light when you turn your head — the sort of earring you put in and then forget you're wearing, which is honestly the highest compliment I can pay a...
Vintage Silver Zircon Stud Earrings with Gold-Plating
Pale flowers that move when you do, which is the entire argument for drop earrings — that little bit of motion at the side of your face does more than any amount of sparkle sitting still. Sixties jewellery had a lightness to it that came back into fa...
Vintage 1960s 14K Gold Natural Diamond Floral Drop Earrings
Rings that are mostly about colour
This is the part of the list that explains why I love jewellery from here. Nothing in this section is trying to be tasteful and restrained — there's a red one, a green one, two blues and an opal, all of them set in warm yellow gold rather than the pa...
Three opals in a row, and opal is the stone I'd choose if I could only keep one — it never gives you the same colour twice, so the ring looks like a different ring depending on where you're standing and what you're wearing. Warm gold around it, nothi...
Vintage Opal & Diamond Ring - 14ct Gold
Red and white together in a cluster, which is a combination I keep coming back to — there's something about a red stone in yellow gold that clear stones on their own never manage. This is a dinner ring. It has no interest in being subtle and I wouldn...
Vintage Circa 1980s 14k Gold Natural Diamond And Ruby Decorated Cluster Ring
Green, and proper deep green rather than anything minty. Green against warm yellow gold is one of those pairings that has never once looked wrong, and the softer old-style stones around it stop the whole thing looking like a jewellery shop window. Ri...
Vintage Circa 1980s 18k Gold Natural Rose Cut Diamond And Emerald Ring
A navette is that long pointed shape that sits down the length of the finger rather than across it, and it does something quietly flattering — it makes a hand look longer. Blue and white side by side with yellow gold holding it all together. Very eig...
Vintage Circa 1980s 18k Gold Natural Diamond And Sapphire Navette Ring
The newly made one, and it's here on purpose. A cabochon is a stone polished smooth instead of cut into facets, so it reads as a deep pool of colour rather than as sparkle — softer, moodier, and much less obvious. If you like the look of the older pi...
New Made 14k Gold Natural Diamond And Cabochon Sapphire Decorated Ring
Old gold, old cuts
The oldest pieces here, and they look it — in a good way. Stones cut before electric light behave completely differently to modern ones: they glow rather than flash, and they look best by lamplight or across a table rather than under a shop's spotlig...
Proper Art Deco geometry — a bright centre with blue on either side, narrow and architectural in the way things from that period always are. It has clearly had a life before you, which I like, and the seller is open about it having been repaired. One...
Art Deco Sapphire & Diamond 18ct Gold Ring
Gold laid over silver, which is how rings were built back when gold was too precious to use all the way through — and it gives the surface a softer, warmer quality than solid modern gold has. The stones don't flash at you; they glow. This looks like ...
Antique Circa 1900s 8k Gold Top Silver Natural Diamond Decorated Ring
Rose gold and pearl, which is about as soft as jewellery gets — nothing in it is trying to catch light aggressively and the whole thing sits low and quiet on the hand. This is the gentlest ring on the list and probably the easiest of the old ones to ...
Estate Antique Circa 1900s 14k Gold Handcrafted Natural Diamond And Pearl Ring
The showpiece, and I've put it last on purpose. A rose gold heart covered in old flat-cut stones, which catch light in a completely different way to anything modern — less like a spotlight and more like candlelight. It's by far the most serious thing...
Antique Circa 1900 9K Rose Gold Natural Rose Cut Diamond Heart Pendant