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Antique Indian Moghul Jewelry
Lately eBay has seen a proliferation of pieces utilizing mine-cut and rose-cut diamonds. Naturally, we wondered what was happening. Here's the skinny.
A flood of reproduction Moghul jewelry is coming out of India. These pieces are typically 14k or 18k gold with sterling silver and they are often not even marketed with the caretage. (Did you know you can buy metal stamps to stamp 14k or 18k on jewelry? We've seen them on eBay!) The diamonds, which often have irregular shapes, are set in silver, then the part of the piece that makes contact with your skin is done in gold. Some unscrupulous sellers on eBay are claiming these as genuine antiques. They're not. Beware of anyone who has a large number of "Moghul" pieces, says they bought a huge collection from a British dealer/collector, or who states outright that any of their pieces once belonged to British royalty. A seller whose pictures are consistently blurry should also be suspect. As time goes on the lies seem to get bolder as more sellers discover the source and enter the market for themselves. One of the more comical frauds was a seller with an antique blue topaz, coral and diamond brooch. Just one problem: Blue topaz is a modern invention, created by irradiating colorless white topaz. It wasn't around 100 years ago! Turquoise is also a tipoff in these fakes. If you see a smooth uniformly-colored piece of turquoise with no matrix or veining, it is probably a structured turquoise composite and it definitely indicates a newer piece.
Cuff Bracelets The cuff (and its cousin, the armlet) is a very old jewelry form. Examples have been found from as early as 2500 B.C. Often they were made from that most-malleable metal, gold, and were worn by both men and women.
Today elegant solid gold cuff designs from purveyors such as Tiffany, John Hardy and David Yurman are popular.
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Classic eBay TV Commercial
From the "Shop Victoriously" campaign, here's a scene familiar to anyone who's been to a greyhound race.
What you don't know about blue topaz
Blue topaz is actually white topaz that has been irradiated, turning the stone blue, ranging from a light pure color to very dark almost electric blue.
Topaz cleaves easily, so you should avoid knocking your blue topaz stone against hard surfaces.
The biggest topaz crystal ever found, named "El Dorado", was found in Brazil in 1984. It weighs 6.2 kg and belongs to the British Royal Collection.
Blue topaz is the December birthstone.
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