June Roses and Romance

Roses are linked with love and romance.
Every Valentine's day red roses appear in abundance.
With roses starting to flower in June (here in the UK). Many a summer bride has a bouquet of roses in cream, red, yellow or what ever colour coordinates with their wedding scheme

The rose in the language of flowers much favored by the Victorians meaning "Love and joy; a paragon of virtue; beauty and fragrance; the queen of flowers; used to treat headaches, hysteria and other complaints"

Roses are depicted on fabrics, paintings and jewellery. In fact roses are timeless

Time of Roses

It was not in the winter
Our loving lot was cast;
It was the time of roses-
We plucked them as we passed!

That churlish season never frowned
On early lovers yet:
O no - the world was newly crowned
With flowers when first we met!

'Twas twilight, and I bade you go,
But still you held me fast;
It was the time of roses -
We plucked them as we passed!

Poem by THOMAS HOOD (1799 - 1845)

Roses remained popular through the Victorian era and beyond. Antique and vintage jewellery has reflected this. To wear a vintage brooch on a dress or bag always makes me think. Who wore this before and were they given this piece of jewellery by a loved one? Romantic fantasy I know, but it does not hurt!


Vintage rose necklace and earring set Golden rose bracelet by Sarah Coventry vintage rose buttons

Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you!

Jewellery Glossary

Cabochon glass stone in this Hollywood brooch

Below are just a four common terms used to describe jewellery both fine and costume

Cabochon - A stone with a smooth curved, highly polished and unfaceted surface. The oldest form of gem cutting still in use today.

Cameo pendant from plastic

Cameo - A gem, hardstone, shell, plastic or other materials in which the upper section is carved or molded in relief whilst the lower serves as a background.

Filigree - Delicate metal wire designed into a complex repeating pattern.

Filigree design on this brooch

Marcasite - The trade name given to the tiny bright metallic stones called iron pyrites when used in jewellery.

Marcasite clip on earrings

All jewellery available at Jewels and Finery

Vintage Patterns for knitting, sewing or crochet

At last we have managed to photograph the large number of vintage patterns we have collected It took my son several hours to go through the amount. We had guessed about 600 but in the end there was just over 500.
So have been adding them to our site, its a slow process but have been adding between 10 to 20 patterns per day

The patterns are vintage unused, second hand and some are quite retro. They at present date from the fourties through to fairly modern

We have had great fun just looking at the different styles. One pattern for matching his and hers fair isle waistcoats has taken Marks fancy and he wants them knitted for us??

Just a quick conversion for yarn weight between the UK and USA see below

2 ply or lace (UK) = Baby (USA)
3 ply (UK) = Fingering (USA)
4 ply (UK) = Sportweight (USA)
Double knitting DK (UK) = Worsted (USA)
Aran (UK) = Fisherman or medium (USA)
Chunky (UK) = Bulky (USA)
Super chunky (UK) = Super bulky (USA)

For me (Sue) the models jewellery has been good for research, as the jewellery is named on some patterns and then helps with the date of certain pieces

Because we have so many vintage patterns, we decided to add a category rather than continue to add to the small sub category within vintage craft books. The patterns will be moved from the book section once we have added the majority of patterns to the new category. We will never get round to adding them all as we do tend to buy and source more patterns every week!!

A few weeks ago now we were asked by a TV researcher for a knitting pattern for a sixties gonk. Still have not found one yet - but we keep looking

At the moment we have many knitting patterns, some crochet and sewing patterns for womens and mens clothes. Babies and children clothes and accessories, unisex and family patterns, soft furnishings and dolls clothing or soft toys to make. Also pattern books for school fetes, fairs and bazaar knits





Vintage patterns

Bookmark or site and check back regular to see what we have found



Or add some genuine vintage buttons to your knitted or crochet clothes
Again we add weekly and have a huge amount just waiting!
Vintage buttons

Cameo bracelets and brooches shown here

Cameo bracelets, cameo brooches, cameo earrings, cameo necklaces and other cameo jewellery showcased here

 
Cameos have been around for centuries. Still very popular today. Whilst looking at antique jewellery at a fair the other day, we overheard a young girl getting very excited over a selection of cameo brooches and was having a hard time deciding what to buy.
Unlike many vintage jewellery dealers, we now actively source cameos both old and more modern
Unlike many cameo enthusiasts we actually like the modern cameos that depict the popular goddess. She fascinates us - who actually first produced her? From our acquired knowledge she appeared around the late sixties and is still used today.

So as cameos span all ages we started an antique and vintage cameo section on Jewels and Finery. (Website now closed) All the cameo pictured have now been sold or destroyed in a fire that happened at our storage unit. Here are just a few cameo jewellery that we have sourced in the last 10 years. The pictures are taken from our archives. 

Scottish jewellery by Exquisite

One of the best known range of jewellery by Exquisite of Solihull was the Scottish Jewellery souvenir brooch range


A combination of lucky white heather and/or purple thistles all tied up with the Exquisite trade mark ribbon or bow.

All things Scottish had been made famous and popularized by Queen Victoria. Exquisite made gilt jewellery from 1914 and before moving to Solihull in the fifties, was already making souvenirs from their premises in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. Many of these souvenir brooches were sold in Scotland and were widely available in many small souvenir shops. From the number in Birmingham and other places - I think they were also readily available across the rest of the UK.

So far I have counted at least a dozen different styles of the Scottish brooches. One source confirms that three brooches were registered in 1962. These brooches will have "EXQUISITE" and "REG" with the copy right sign on the back. The design numbers were 905225, 905226 and 905227.
However many of the brooches have "EXQUISITE" on only, Some have Exquisite in script and some are unsigned with a riveted pin fastening - denoting an much earlier date.

More research is still needed to confirm dating and reg numbers to designs.

The brooches were hand enamelled and so not only can many different designs be collected but each will have a slight difference. Some of the brooches have amethyst purple coloured faceted glass stones. Again some are very pale ranging to dark purple in colour


When I am discussing the Scottish brooch range I am only referring to the ones that are enamelled and have heather or thistles, with or without purple glass stones in silver or gold tone metal. Exquisite also produced a range of Scottish themed jewellery very similar to "Miracle" jewellery with faux stones such as turquoise and agate which look quite different. They also produced enamelled Scottish flower brooches as well.

Vintage button packs

We have been buttoning it this week!!

Mark and I have been adding lots of packs of vintage buttons. All colours and styles in single quantities or larger amounts

The March issue of Button Lines arrived last week - The journal of the British Button Society. Full of interesting articles: cut steel and Suffragette buttons for collecting. If you collect or have an interest in buttons the society is well worth joining

Now have a growing mixture of antique and vintage buttons for sewing, embellishment, jewellery making, soft furnishing, craft projects and also some for collecting

Mustard Brown Buttons

White Feature Buttons

Cleaning Jewellery With An Ultrasonic Cleaner

Jewellery picks up dirt from every day wear. A piece of jewellery may not look as though it has but often when you start to clean and see the results you realize that it was in need of a clean.

A few weeks ago, we brought a small ultrasonic cleaner. Having looked at them before and were not too convinced that they would clean better than by hand. But we saw this small model at a good price and thought we would give it a try.

Well we should have brought one before now. It brings jewellery up a treat. New looking and shiny.

The first sunflower brooch we tried to clean, we actually thought was gold plated and had been worn. This is the brooch - a sunflower - It came clean and looks like new

So now converted and slowly working our way through all our jewellery on our website

An ultrasonic cleaner works with ultrasonic waves through water. So not suitable for some pieces of jewellery but ideal for many rings, brooches, necklaces and chains. Bangles and bracelets.