Ancient Roman Legionnaire Officer Gold-Plated Cloak Button (Now Stick Pin) AD300

Handsome Ancient Roman Provincial Antioch Gold-Plated Bronze Cloak Fastener/Button.  Use as a Unique Stick Pin!

CLASSIFICATION:  Roman Gold-Plated Bronze Artifact.  Mounted onto plaque or shadow box upon request (additional shipping charges apply).

ATTRIBUTION:  Eastern Roman Empire (Syria), Second or Third Century A.D.

SIZE/MEASUREMENTS:

Diameter:  25 millimeters.

Thickness:  15 millimeters.

NOTE:  Can also be mounted onto a plaque or into a shadow box (see below).

CONDITION:  Very good.  Button/fastener is of sound integrity.  Very light porosity (surface pitting caused by contact with earth while buried), a couple of minor perforations, minor plating wear.  Professionally conserved.

DETAIL:  This is a very handsome, decorative piece of ancient Roman ornamentation.  This was a button/fastener for a cloak, probably a leather cloak, and most likely a Roman legionary Officer’s cloak.  We identify it as probably an officer’s cloak button based on the fact that the button is gold-plated.  The function and application is very apparent, really no different than old-fashioned cloak fasteners/buttons in use today.  Though obviously intended for use in closing a cloak, we hope you will agree it might make an absolutely unique and handsome stick pin.  It’s just the perfect size to be used.  What a unique accessory!  Worn as a lapel button hole fob, we are sure that the original owner would not disapprove, as the Romans were quite fond of wearing ornamental brooches and pins.  As a stick pin it is a very handsome and provocative piece of jewelry, of very nice design and workmanship.  It is a very solid piece, well constructed, and in a fairly good state of preservation.

Just a note or two.  The button has been attached to the stick pin using jeweler’s epoxy.  It could be removed without damaging the artifact.  And yes, the gold-plating is ancient, not contemporary.  Pliny the Elder (first century Roman Historian and Naturalist) described the ancient Roman techniques for metal plating almost 2,000 years ago.  It is estimated that the Romans discovered a number of metal-plating techniques, including electro-plating, as early as the fifth century B.C.  Of course, even by the time of the Romans, metal, wood, and bone had been gilt-plated with silver and gold for thousands of years.  By the third century, as the later Roman Empire declined, Romans routinely silver plated their coins on a massive scale (a good study.

The artifact evidences only a very light degree of porosity (fine surface pitting due to burial in soil), telltale evidence that it spent many centuries buried.  However the porosity (or corrosion) is not to the devastating extent which so commonly completely disfigures small ancient bronze artifacts.  This ancient gold-plated button is in wonderful condition, the gold plating very thick and lustrous on the front side of the button (the gold plating seems to be thinner on the back side of the button).  There are no cracks, chips, or other impairments its integrity.  The Romans were very fond of jewelry and personal ornamentation, making wide use of very ornate belt buckles, brooches, appliqués, bracelets worn both on the forearm and upper arm, rings, earrings, hair pins, and pendants.  This artifact is quite handsome, and it makes a very distinct and uncommon stick pin.

If you request (follow the links below), we could remove the stick pin and mount the artifact onto a framed display plaque, and it would make a great gift.  The plaque narrates a brief outline of the history of ancient Rome along with a couple of images of very beautiful artifacts.  It would make a very handsome gift, for yourself or a friend, and would surely delight a son or daughter.  It would not only make a very handsome display, but would be very educational as well.  If you prefer, the artifact could be installed within a glass-front shadow box with or without printed history.

HISTORY:  One of the greatest civilizations of recorded history was the ancient Roman Empire.  In exchange for a very modest amount of contemporary currency, you can possess a small part of that great civilization in the form of a 2,000 year old piece of jewelry.  The Roman civilization, in relative terms the greatest military power in the history of the world, was founded in the 8th century (B.C.).  In the 4th Century (B.C.) the Romans were the dominant power on the Italian Peninsula, having defeated the Etruscans and Celts.   In the 3rd Century (B.C.) the Romans conquered Sicily, and in the following century defeated Carthage, and controlled the Greece.  Throughout the remainder of the 2nd Century (B.C.) the Roman Empire continued its gradual conquest of the Hellenistic (Greek Colonial) World by conquering Syria and Macedonia; and finally came to control Egypt in the 1st Century (B.C.).

The pinnacle of Roman power was achieved in the 1st Century (A.D.) as Rome conquered much of Britain and Western Europe.  For a brief time, the era of “Pax Romana”, a time of peace and consolidation reigned.  Civilian emperors were the rule, and the culture flourished with a great deal of liberty enjoyed by the average Roman Citizen.  However within 200 years the Roman Empire was in a state of steady decay, attacked by Germans, Goths, and Persians.  In the 4th Century (A.D.) the Roman Empire was split between East and West.  The Great Emperor Constantine temporarily arrested the decay of the Empire, but within a hundred years after his death the Persians captured Mesopotamia, Vandals infiltrated Gaul and Spain, and the Goths even sacked Rome itself.  Most historians date the end of the Western Roman Empire to 476 (A.D.) when Emperor Romulus Augustus was deposed.  However the Eastern Roman Empire (The Byzantine Empire) survived until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D.

At its peak, the Roman Empire stretched from Britain in the West, throughout most of Western, Central, and Eastern Europe, and into Asia Minor.  Valuables such as coins and jewelry were commonly buried for safekeeping, and inevitably these ancient citizens would succumb to one of the many perils of the ancient world.  Oftentimes the survivors of these individuals did not know where the valuables had been buried, and today, two thousands years later caches of coins and rings are still commonly uncovered throughout Europe and Asia Minor.  Roman Soldiers oftentimes came to possess large quantities of “booty” from their plunderous conquests, and routinely buried their treasure for safekeeping before they went into battle.

If they met their end in battle, most often the whereabouts of their treasure was likewise, unknown.  Throughout history these treasures have been inadvertently discovered by farmers in their fields, uncovered by erosion, and the target of unsystematic searches by treasure seekers.  With the introduction of metal detectors and other modern technologies to Eastern Europe in the past three or four decades, an amazing number of new finds are seeing the light of day 2,000 years or more after they were originally hidden by their past owners.  And with the liberalization of post-Soviet Eastern Europe, new markets have opened eager to share in these treasures of the Roman Empire.

This artifact came from the area of ancient Antioch, the capitol city of the Roman Province of Syria.  Antioch stands at the focal point for communications with Palestine to the south and with the Euphrates to the east. A road led southwest through the suburb of Daphne to the Seleucid seaport of Laodicea, and another road to Antioch's own harbor town, Seleuceia. The ancient city extended along both sides of the Orontes River, which was crossed by five bridges (of which one of Roman origin still remains).  Daphne was the celebrated sanctuary of Apollo. The road between Antioch and Daphne - a distance of five miles - was bordered by parks, fountains, villas and splendid structures appropriate to the gay procession that thronged from the city gate to the scene of consecrated pleasure. Daphne itself was a pleasure garden.

Pompey added Antioch to the Roman Empire in 64 BC. The city still flourished after annexation to the Roman Empire, and was one of the two largest cities in the East, the other being Alexandria. Its continued prosperity was due to its position as an administrative center and its excellent trade routes to the hinterland and overseas.  Antioch, the famous "Queen of the East", with its population of more than half a million, its beautiful site, its trade and culture, and its important military position, was a rival of Alexandria (Egypt).  The two cities vied for position as the most significant city in the empire after Rome itself.  The Greco-Macedorian colonies which comprised Syria had been in the past organized as self-governing city-states. Required to pay taxes and obey royal ordinances but allowed to administer their internal affairs.  These semi-independent satrapies were begun by the Persian Empire, retained by Seleucid, and essentially the system used by the Romans.

When Pompey established the Roman province of Syria in 64 B.C., Antioch was included within it as a nominally free city, and as such it continued until the time of Antoninus Pius (138-161 A.D.). The early emperors raised some large and important structures, such as aqueducts, amphitheaters and baths. Antioch seems to have had almost a monopoly in the valuable ivory trade from the elephants that existed in the region at the time. It long enjoyed the right of coinage even during the Republican period when it was the only city in the entire empire (other than Rome itself) which was permitted to strike coinage with the inscription “SC”, which was the abbreviation for Senatus Consultus (with the permission of the Senate).  The Roman emperors Caligula, Trajan, and Hadrian built aqueducts to supply Antioch with excellent water. Under Diocletian an Imperial armament factory was established at Antioch.   Under Roman rule, Alexandria and Antioch, with their unruly, pleasure-seeking and highly industrious populations were great eastern capitals.  Their busy trade brought strange peoples and cargoes from as far away as India and China, and at the same time, as centers of learning, they continued to attract intellectual leaders.

The population of Antioch was an agglomeration of peoples and races, and the city was divided into sections, or quarters. There were Greeks, Macedonians, Jews, and Syrians, with occasional Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Persians.  Proud, turbulent and satirical, the Antiochians were noted for their mastery of the art of ridicule, coupled with an inability to hold their tongue. Having enjoyed autonomy for most of their history, they chafed under Roman rule. They insulted each Roman Emperor, General, or Governor, sent their way. They also suffered the wrath of the insulted party. Hadrian withdrew the right of coinage; Marcus Aurelius the right of assembly; Septimius Severus transferred the primacy (capitol city) of Syria to away from Antioch to Laodicea, where it temporarily remained. Emperors bestowed titles and rights upon a city as a reward for good behavior; they withdrew these privileges as a punishment for disloyalty.  Though diminished by repeated severe earthquakes and several sacks by the Persians, Antioch remained a significant city well in the timeframe of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire.

HISTORY OF GOLD:  From the earliest of times, gold was often held in awe as the symbol of divinity and was therefore the material of choice for religious objects.  Gold was among the first metals to be mined because it commonly occurs in pure form (not combined with other elements), because it is beautiful and imperishable, and because exquisite objects can be made from it.  Since gold is found uncombined in nature, early goldsmiths would collect small nuggets of gold from stream beds etc., and then weld them together by hammering. It was oftentimes discovered alloyed with 10%-20% silver, the mixture known as “electrum”.  Gold was "discovered" well before 6,000 B.C., most likely in Mesopotamia, though some of the oldest gold objects made by mankind were discovered by archaeologists in present-day Bulgaria (ancient Thrace) and in the Balkans, such as at the Varna Necropolis.  In ancient Egypt all gold was the property of the pharaoh.  Artifacts and jewelry of gold over 5,000 years old have been uncovered by archaeologists in Egyptian tombs.  Around 3,600 B.C. Egyptian goldsmiths carried out the first smelting of ores using blowpipes made from fire-resistant clay to heat the smelting furnace. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs describe gold as the brilliance of the sun.

In the Near East, by 2,500 B.C., Sumerian goldsmiths were using sophisticated metalworking techniques; cold hammering, casting, soldering, cloisonné, and particularly filigree (fine-wire ornamentation) and granulation (the use of minute drops of gold). The tomb of the Sumerian Queen Puabi, from the city of Ur in about the 26th century B.C., was one of the richest tombs ever uncovered by archaeologists.  Queen Puabi was buried with five soldiers and thirteen "ladies in waiting" who had apparently poisoned themselves (or been poisoned) to serve their mistress in the next world. The grave goods she was buried with included a magnificent, heavy, gold headdress made of golden leaves, rings, and plates; a superb lyre complete with a gold and lapis-lazuli encrusted bearded bulls head; a profusion of gold tablewear; cylindrical beads of gold, carnelian, and lapis lazuli woven into extravagant necklaces and belts; a chariot adorned with lioness' heads in silver, and an abundance of silver, lapis lazuli, and gold rings and bracelets.

Another of the most famous tombs uncovered by archaeologists was that of 14th century B.C. Tutankhamun.  The pharaohs of Egypt insisted on being buried in gold, which they believed was the "flesh of the gods." The boy-king Tutankhamun was enshrined in three gold coffins. The third and final coffin was made of 243 pounds (110 kilograms) of solid gold. As well, gold artifacts and jewelry abounded, including the solid gold mask which weighed 10 kilos (24 pounds).  It’s worth noting that Tutankhamun was a minor, almost unknown and forgotten pharaoh.  One can only imagine the wealth of gold some of ancient Egypt’s more significant pharaohs (such as Ramses the Great) must have been buried with.  

The art of fashioning gold jewelry reached the Mediterranean island of Crete (the ancient Minoans) about 2400 B.C. Diadems, hair ornaments, beads, bracelets, and complex chains have been found in Minoan tombs. Near Eastern techniques of filigree and granulation were introduced to Crete about 2000 B.C., and evidence also indicates that Egyptian styles influenced Minoan jewelry. Minoan culture and its jewelry styles spread to the mainland of Greece, then dominated by the city-state of Mycenea, about 1550 B.C.  The graves of nobles at the ancient Citadel of Mycenae discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 likewise yielded a great variety of gold figurines, masks, cups, diadems, and jewelry, plus hundreds of decorated beads and buttons. These elegant works of art were created by skilled craftsmen more than 3,500 years ago.

Metalworking techniques reached northern Europe by about 2000 B.C., and the earliest jewelry found there dates from between 1800 and 1400 B.C. These artifacts include lunulae (spectacular, crescent-shaped neck ornaments of beaten gold), most of which were found in graves in Ireland, where gold was once plentiful. There is evidence that the Celtic and early British people were trading with the Eastern Mediterranean races by this time, exchanging gold for faience beads.  By 1200 B.C. jewelry making was flourishing in Central and Western Europe, where bronze as well as gold was frequently used to make jewelry, and the spiral was the most common motif of decoration. The fibula-brooch seems to have been invented at about this time. Twisted gold torcs, modeled on Scandinavian bronze prototypes, were made in the British Isles and northern France from the fifth to the first century B.C. These massive circlets for the necks and arms were the characteristic ornaments of the chiefs of the Celtic race, and were symbols of wealth, power and courage across Celtic Europe. Celtic craftsmen also used enamel and inlay to decorate jewelry.

By the seventh century B.C. the Etruscans of Central Italy were also making fine gold jewelry. These people may have migrated from Anatolia (present-day Turkey), from where their metalworking skills seem to have been derived. The Etruscans brought to perfection the difficult technique of granulation, whereby the surface of the metal is covered with tiny gold grains.  Gold was plentiful in Greece during the Hellenistic Age (323-30 B.C.), and Greek jewelry of this period is characterized by its great variety of forms and fine workmanship. Naturalistic wreaths and diadems were made for the head, and a variety of miniature human, animal, and plant forms were made up into necklaces and earrings. The so-called Heracles-knot, of amuletic origin, was introduced, and remained a popular motif into Roman times.

The ancient civilizations appear to have obtained most their supplies of gold from various deposits in the Middle East, as well as gold which came through the Middle East from Southern Africa, and perhaps a minor amount from the Ural Mountains of present-day Russia. Mines in the region of the Upper Nile (south of Egypt) near the Red Sea and in the Nubian Desert area supplied much of the gold used by the Egyptian Pharaohs (the area was known to the ancient Egyptians as “Punt”, and to the ancient Christians as “Sheba” or “Saba”). When these mines could no longer meet Egypt’s demand for gold, deposits elsewhere were exploited, likely including deposits thousands of miles away in Southern Africa.  Archaeological evidence indicates that most of the gold in Ancient Egypt and even in the ancient Mediterranean from perhaps 1700 B.C. onwards came from the Himyarites in present-day Yemen (across the Red Sea from Nubia), who in addition to their own deposits, may in turn have obtained much of it from present day Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.

In fact the Himyarites likely controlled most of the east coast of Africa, including Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, and is most likely the area referred to as Monomotapa in ancient texts (known also as the Biblical city of Ophir, from which the Bible records that King Solomon received shipments of gold, silver, ivory, gemstones, and peacocks).  Artisans in Mesopotamia and Palestine probably obtained their supplies either directly from the Himyarites or indirectly through (middleman) Egypt.  As well, recent studies of the ancient mines in the present Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (directly to the north of Yemen) reveal that gold, silver, and copper were recovered from the Red Sea region, across the Red Sea from the Nubian deposits, during the reign of King Solomon (961-922 B.C.).  

Around 1500 B.C. artisans of the ancient world developed the “lost wax” method of producing jewelry, allowing for the “mass production” of gold jewelry.  At the same time, gold had already become the recognized medium of exchange for international trade.  The sixth century B.C. saw the first use of gold in dentistry by the ancient Egyptians, and the introduction of the first gold coinage in Asia Minor by King Croesus of Lydia.  By this time, much of the gold in the Classical Mediterranean cultures came from Spain, where extensive deposits of gold and silver were mined and then acquired by the ancient Phoenicians in trade, and then brought from the Western Mediterranean and traded through the ancient Mediterranean world.  Eventually the Phoenician colony of Carthage became the leading power of the Eastern Mediterranean, and gained control over these valuable deposits.  In turn the Carthaginians engaged the Romans in three wars before Spain was lost to the Romans.  Spanish gold and silver to a great extent allowed the Romans to expand their empire.  The “other” great power of the Classical Mediterranean were the Hellenic Greeks, who by 325 B.C. were mining gold from Gibraltar to Asia Minor.

When the gold in Spain began to play out, the Romans turned their attention toward the gold mines in Dacia (modern Romania). The Dacians had historically traded this gold to the Greeks for pottery and to the Scythians for amber. About 100 A.D. the Roman Emperor Trajan conquered Dacia, mainly in order to gain control of these gold mines. The Romans also exploited smaller gold deposits found in the British Isles.  The Romans used very sophisticated extraction and mining techniques as detailed by the first-century historian and naturalist Pliny the Elder.  The Romans were also the first to mass-produce coinage on a massive scale, the first truly monetized society.  Between the second and fourth centuries A.D., the Romans produced millions of gold aureus coins, and billions of silver and bronze coins.  At the height of the Roman Empire, there were over 400 mints producing coinage in locations scattered through their dominion.

Gold was fashioned into Greek style jewelry during the early Roman Empire, when the chief centers of production were Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome, to which Greek craftsmen had migrated. There was an increasing emphasis on the decorative use of stones, at first garnets, chalcedonies, and carnelians, but  later uncut but polished hard gemstones such as diamonds, sapphires, and, notably, emeralds from “Cleopatra’s Mines” in Egypt.  Colorful gemstone jewelry was common during the Early Middle Ages in the centuries immediately following the collapse of the Roman Empire. Mediterranean goldsmiths continued to produce jewelry of great refinement, but the jewelry of the European Celtic tribes dominated this period. They produced abstract styles of great splendor which were worked in enamels and inlaid stones. The fibula-brooch reached extremes of size and elaboration. During the High Middle Ages the technique of cloisonné enameling on gold was widespread, the finest pieces emanating from the workshops at Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

After the creation of Charlemagne's empire in 800 A.D. and the Holy Roman Empire in 962 A.D., a fusion of northern and Mediterranean cultures occurred. The principal patrons of the arts became the emperor and the church, and jewelers worked in courts and monasteries. Jewelry design was based on the setting in gold of precious stones and pearls in colorful patterns. Gold was used widely for crosses, altars, doors, chalices, and reliquaries.  This association with divinity naturally developed into an association with royalty.  Even in modern times the accoutrements of royalty are predominantly gold.  However there was a critical shortage of gold which developed in the High Middle Ages.  During the years 1370-1420 A.D. as various major mines around Europe become completely exhausted. Mining and production of gold declined sharply throughout the region in a period known as 'The Great Bullion Famine'.  However by about 1433 A.D. this spurred the Portuguese to start sailing to Ghana in Western Africa and thus enabling them to trade for gold without having to cross the Sahara Desert into Muslim northern Africa.  By 1471 A.D., the Portuguese were even calling West Africa the "Gold Coast", and a reliable source of gold was again available to Western Europe.

In the “New World”, archaeologists believe that the gold in the Aztec and Inca treasuries of Mexico and Peru came from Colombia, although some undoubtedly was obtained from other sources. The Aztecs regarded gold as literally the product of the gods, calling it "god excrement".  The Conquistadores plundered the treasuries of these civilizations during their explorations of the New World, and many gold and silver objects were melted and cast into coins and bars, destroying the priceless artifacts of these MesoAmerican cultures.

Gold is widely dispersed through the earth's crust (and even in seawater) and is found in two types of deposits; lode deposits, which are found in solid rock and are mined using conventional mining techniques, and placer deposits which are gravelly deposits found in stream beds and are the products of eroding lode deposits. The largest gold nugget ever found was in 19th century Australia weighing over 70 kilograms (150 pounds).  Gold is quite unique in its malleability.  No other metal compares with it.  A single ounce can be stretched into a wire 60 kilometers long (40 miles), or pounded into a sheet of 300 square feet (the size of two typical suburban bedrooms).  Because of its chemical inertness, gold retains its brilliant color even after centuries of exposure to corrosive elements.  The most workable of all metals, gold has been forged, chased, embossed, engraved, inlayed, cast, and in the form of gold leaf, used to gild metals, woods, leather, and parchment.  Gold wire has found wide uses in brocades and ornamentation of other materials.  Throughout at least five millennia of recorded history it has been used to fashion sculpture, vessels, jewelry, ornamentation, and coinage.

Throughout the history of the ancient world, gemstones were believed capable of curing illness, possessed of valuable metaphysical properties, and to provide protection.  Found in Egypt dated 1500 B. C., the "Papyrus Ebers" offered one of most complete therapeutic manuscripts containing prescriptions using gemstones and minerals.  Gemstones were not only valued for their medicinal and protective properties, but also for educational and spiritual enhancement.  In the ancient world, gold was regarded to symbolize power, strength, wealth, warmth, happiness, love, hope, optimism, intelligence, justice, balance, perfection, summer, harvest and the sun.  Gold was also believed to possess curative and “magical” properties.  During the Middle Ages it was believed that something as rare and beautiful as gold could not be anything but healthy, so gold was regarded as beneficial for health and was not only worn but also ingested.  In fact, some gold salts do have anti-inflammatory properties, and in modern times, injectable gold has been proven to help to reduce the pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis and tuberculosis.  The isotope gold-198 is also used in some cancer treatments and for treating other diseases.  Gold flake was used by the nobility in Medieval Europe as a decoration in food and drinks, in the form of leaf, flakes or dust, either to demonstrate the host's wealth or in the belief that something that valuable and rare must be beneficial for one's health.  Even today gold leaf, flake or dust is used on and in some gourmet foods, notably sweets (particularly in India and the Middle East) and drinks as decorative ingredient.

SHIPPING & RETURNS/REFUNDS: Your purchase will ordinarily be shipped within 48 hours of payment. We package as well as anyone in the business, with lots of protective padding and containers. All of our shipments are fully insured against loss, and our shipping rates include the cost of this coverage (through stamps.com, Shipsaver.com, the USPS, UPS, or Fed-Ex). International tracking is provided free by the USPS for certain countries, other countries are at additional cost. ADDITIONAL PURCHASES do receive a VERY LARGE discount, typically about $5 per item so as to reward you for the economies of combined shipping/insurance costs. We do offer U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail, Registered Mail, and Express Mail for both international and domestic shipments, as well United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (Fed-Ex). Please ask for a rate quotation. We will accept whatever payment method you are most comfortable with.

Please note for international purchasers we will do everything we can to minimize your liability for VAT and/or duties. But we cannot assume any responsibility or liability for whatever taxes or duties may be levied on your purchase by the country of your residence. If you don’t like the tax and duty schemes your government imposes, please complain to them. We have no ability to influence or moderate your country’s tax/duty schemes. If upon receipt of the item you are disappointed for any reason whatever, I offer a no questions asked 30-day return policy. Send it back, I will give you a complete refund of the purchase price; 1) less our original shipping/insurance costs, 2) less any non-refundable eBay fees. Please note that eBay may not refund payment processing fees on returns beyond a 30-day purchase window. So except for shipping costs, we will refund all proceeds from the sale of a return item. Though they generally do, eBay may not always follow suit. Obviously we have no ability to influence, modify or waive eBay policies.

ABOUT US: Prior to our retirement we used to travel to Eastern Europe and Central Asia several times a year seeking antique gemstones and jewelry from the globe’s most prolific gemstone producing and cutting centers. Most of the items we offer came from acquisitions we made in Eastern Europe, India, and from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean/Near East) during these years from various institutions and dealers. Much of what we generate on Etsy, Amazon and Ebay goes to support worthy institutions in Europe and Asia connected with Anthropology and Archaeology. Though we have a collection of ancient coins numbering in the tens of thousands, our primary interests are ancient/antique jewelry and gemstones, a reflection of our academic backgrounds.

Though perhaps difficult to find in the USA, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia antique gemstones are commonly dismounted from old, broken settings – the gold reused – the gemstones recut and reset. Before these gorgeous antique gemstones are recut, we try to acquire the best of them in their original, antique, hand-finished state – most of them originally crafted a century or more ago. We believe that the work created by these long-gone master artisans is worth protecting and preserving rather than destroying this heritage of antique gemstones by recutting the original work out of existence. That by preserving their work, in a sense, we are preserving their lives and the legacy they left for modern times. Far better to appreciate their craft than to destroy it with modern cutting.

Not everyone agrees – fully 95% or more of the antique gemstones which come into these marketplaces are recut, and the heritage of the past lost. But if you agree with us that the past is worth protecting, and that past lives and the produce of those lives still matters today, consider buying an antique, hand cut, natural gemstone rather than one of the mass-produced machine cut (often synthetic or “lab produced”) gemstones which dominate the market today. We can set most any antique gemstone you purchase from us in your choice of styles and metals ranging from rings to pendants to earrings and bracelets; in sterling silver, 14kt solid gold, and 14kt gold fill. When you purchase from us, you can count on quick shipping and careful, secure packaging. We would be happy to provide you with a certificate/guarantee of authenticity for any item you purchase from us. There is a $3 fee for mailing under separate cover. I will always respond to every inquiry whether via email or eBay message, so please feel free to write.