Our Vintage & Antique Jewelry Blog

To celebrate the festive season, we present our holiday gift guides!

The New Meets Old gift guide highlights the intersection of vintage jewelry and modern shapes. Bold antique pieces pair with classic styles that transcend their time period, plus modern jewels influenced by vintage design.

Whether simple or dramatic, a bride’s ensemble reflects her personal style and can set the tone for the entire wedding. A lot of thought goes into her head-to-toe look, from the dress to the shoes to the jewelry. After tearing ideas from magazines and pinning up a storm, she may be overwhelmed by the possibilities. Luckily, there’s an easy way to pinpoint a style – look to the venue! The couple’s choice of location will influence the color palette and decor, why not let it also inspire the fashion? Based on our Doyle & Doyle brides, we’ve curated five looks based on popular wedding venues. Couture gowns from Giambattista Valli, Elie Saab, Vionnet, and Chanel are matched with vintage and antique jewelry to create bridal styles that are both modern and timeless.

Is there anything more romantic than a garden wedding? Trailing ivy, a sun dappled lawn, and colorful flowers are all the decoration you need to create a beautiful day. Perfectly at home in any garden is this flower strewn Giambattista Valli gown, matched with wedding jewelry that picks up the palette of pink, green, and yellow. Wouldn’t a jeweled butterfly look beautiful perched on the shoulder, at the waist, or even in the bride’s hair? And we love the sentiment of Victorian forget-me-nots which decorate the delicate bangle. Add in a pair of colorful cocktail rings and diamond briolette earrings for sparkle, and you’re ready for “I do”.

Since Doyle & Doyle’s founding in 1998 by sisters Elizabeth and Irene Pamela Doyle, they’ve showcased a beautifully curated selection of vintage, antique, and estate jewelry. Led by the Doyles’ love of history and design, Doyle & Doyle also serves as a resource for the community to discover the rich history of jewelry and personal adornment. In this tradition, we are excited to introduce The Vault, an ongoing series of exhibitions of curated collections around a theme.

For the debut exhibition, we’re honored to have Lynn Yaeger co-curate an exquisite selection of vintage and antique accessories. Lynn is a celebrated fashion journalist, antique jewelry collector, and one of Doyle & Doyle’s earliest supporters. Her style, wealth of knowledge, and passion has influenced us throughout the years. In her words:

“A hundred years ago, jewelry didn’t just mean rings and brooches, earrings and bracelets. The category was flexible enough to accommodate not just gold mesh purses but diamond hair barrettes, tiny golden notebooks with miniature cabochon-topped pencils, 18 karat eyeglass frames, and crystal mystery clocks – objects so glorious, so ingenious, so desirable that even now, so many decades later, we can only gasp in wonderment at the splendor of these creations.

They may have been insanely extravagant, but at least these wondrous accessories were meant to last forever – gold belt buckles would be endlessly affixed to different leathers and ribbons, a dowager’s lorgnette could enlarge print for generations. There’s a cleverness, almost a craziness, to some of the items that found their way into pockets and atop dressing tables. We hope you enjoy this collection gathered by Doyle & Doyle – a gorgeous testament to the way the most unexpected objects can be elevated to the realm of art.”

Holiday parties call for sparkling frocks, killer shoes, and of course, beautiful jewels. From all-out diamond glitz to rich gold and dramatic colors, you’ll find everything you need to make it a glamorous holiday (or any time of year) in our gift guide!

101180E Vintage diamond earrings c. 1950 platinum and 18k $2800. 096847NW Heirloom fancy basket diamond pendant 18k $2100. 100969R Edwardian diamond and pink sapphire ring Birks platinum $5900. 095719E Victorian Whitby jet earrings 9k $650. 099961N Edwardian style negligee necklace Polish c. 1930 18k and platinum $4800. 100600M Art Nouveau diamond dragon cufflinks 18k $1200. 097608R Retro diamond and ruby ring c. 1950 14k and platinum $3800. 101694E Vintage diamond sea urchin earrings 18k $2800. 101500R Victorian gold filigree and turquoise bangle bracelet c. 1900 18k $2800.

Our third holiday gift guide features some of the most spectacular pieces in our collection, including historically important jewelry from the Georgian, Victorian, and Art Deco periods and incredible colored gemstones and diamonds. Each carefully selected jewel is a once in a lifetime gift and will quickly become her favorite statement piece.

Who doesn’t love a pop of color for the holidays? For our second gift guide, we’re showcasing every beautiful hue in our jewelry collection, including antique, vintage, and Heirloom pieces. From rich red ruby to velvety green emerald and sunny yellow citrine, we’ve got all your favorites covered. And if you’re like me and you’d rather wear every color (at the same time!), we’ve included a few of our favorite multicolor pieces at the end. Have a colorful, sparkling holiday!

098199R Vintage tourmaline cocktail ring 14k white gold $3650. 097679E Heirloom fancy basket ruby studs 18k gold $450. 096910E Victorian carnelian earrings c. 1890 10k gold $1800. 101355R Antique citrine flower ring c. 1910 14k gold $1200. 100206P Victorian citrine filigree brooch c. 1890 10k gold $1200. 098940N Victorian green enamel and pearl locket 15k gold $1800. 097086P Victorian turquoise and pearl striped brooch c. 1870 14k gold $1200. HE-0009a-8P Heirloom cushion cut lapis and diamond earrings 18k rose gold $1550. 092643E Heirloom fancy basket amethyst drop earrings 18k gold $525.

Our first Gift Guide of the season is inspired by the idea of being home for the holidays, whether you’re traveling to see family, celebrating with friends, or planning a romantic getaway. We layered vintage and antique pieces with the navigational West 13th Collection to create a versatile line up of unique holiday jewels.

How do you create a sense of home during the holiday season? 

Halloween makes us want to pull out the blackest, most macabre jewelry in our collection – memento mori, or mourning jewelry. It can be difficult for us in the 21st century to understand why people wore jewelry that was a constant reminder of death. It feels a little creepy at first, but like all jewelry, mourning pieces were made from love and worn with love. This is antique jewelry at its most bittersweet and sentimental. 

We’re packing up our treasure chest of jewels! If you’ve been following along with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you may have seen our big news – Doyle & Doyle is moving to THE MEATPACKING DISTRICT!!  We’ll share more details on the new location and a special announcement tomorrow – watch this space!

Thinking about our new home in the chic Meatpacking District, we realize that the streets of New York are like so many Fashion Week catwalks. Stroll through any neighborhood and you’ll see an endless parade of different looks. Fashion magazines and blogs have caught on and they love to showcase New York’s unique brand of street style. 

October’s birthstones are two of the most versatile gemstones. Prized for their range of colors, opal and tourmaline have inspired jewelers, poets, and artists. Shakespeare called opal “the queen of gems” and Pliny the Elder wrote that within its depths, you could see “the living fire of the ruby, the glorious purple of the amethyst, the sea green of the emerald, all glittering together in an incredible mixture of light.” Opal’s unique play of color is caused by the way silica combines with water in the cavities of ancient rock formations.