Hello Doyle & Doyle friends!  My name is Jessica and I will be the new blogger for Style Gems, with appearances from some of my fabulous colleagues here at the store!  I look forward to sharing our new acquisitions, a little jewelry history, some style inspiration and suggestions/advice for choosing and caring for that special vintage piece.  Now on to the jewels!

Here at Doyle & Doyle I have the privilege of working with customers during a very important milestone in their lives — choosing their engagement ring.   Every day I see people fall in love with rings that may not be considered “traditional” engagement rings.  To that I say yay!  When it comes to vintage jewelry, the options are endless and if you stay open-minded you just may wind up with a truly unique and rare treasure from an era when jewelers were masters at their craft.

Part 1 of this series can be found here .

The Art Deco “dinner” Ring is not just for dinner anymore!  Dinner rings from the Art Deco era have a dramatic and powerful presence when worn as an engagement ring.  Plus, you can get maximum sparkle for a fraction of the price!

The open areas on this Art Deco Old European Cut ring give it a light and delicate look.

Old European & Rose Cut Diamond Ring Platinum $2200

A personal favorite of mine, this unusual and beautifully articulated Art Deco ring holds three French cut sapphires — giving it a striking, geometric focal point:

French Cut Sapphire & Diamond Platinum Dinner Ring $2450

Beautiful, lacy metal work and hand-engraving are the defining characteristics of this bold and wearable Art Deco ring:

Old European Diamond Filigree Dinner Ring Platinum $1600

Do you remember the scene in “My Fair Lady” when Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Dolittle wore the most stunning dress to the races at Ascot?  Every time I see this ring, I think of that dress:

Don’t worry about wearing the unusual shapes of these rings with a wedding band — just move your engagement ring to your right hand and you’re free to choose any wedding band you like, without restrictions on how it looks next to your ring!

Next week: “Vintage Bridal Jewelry: How To Choose Pieces You Can Wear Again and Again!”

For more information about the pieces featured in this entry, please call us at (212)-677-9991 or email us at info@doyledoyle.com .

Tags: antique engagement ring, Art Deco engagement ring, dinner ring, filigree, old european, platinum, vintage engagement ring.

May flowers are here!

And not just in the form of tulips, daffodils and daisies, but fashioned from gold and platinum, and set with colorful stones.

Whether it’s a necklace featuring roses carved from coral, flower earrings with clusters of ruby petals or an onyx flower pin, let your (flower) garden grow wherever you can.

Victorian Flower Lithograph

Flowers have always been a popular motif in jewelry. The Victorian era saw the birth of the ‘language of flowers’, also called floriography, where romantic sentiment was communicated through floral arrangements and floral-themed jewels.

Jewelry of the Art Nouveau era was full of flowers, some of the most famous being Rene Lalique’s shapely enameled beauties.

Rene Lalique Brooch

And, of course, the always-fun Retro era was rife with floral-shaped accessories, which were often set with bright-colored precious and semi-precious stones.

Lavender Jade Retro Earrings

In essence, jewelers have never not loved flowers, and who can blame them for wanting to immortalize Mother Nature’s ephemeral works of art with the more lasting materials of metal and gems.

Below, some of my favorite floral-themed jewels from the current Doyle & Doyle collection:

By definition, a ‘buttercup’ setting is one that resembles a buttercup flower – those tiny yellow beauties that you see in grassy fields in April and May. This delicate Victorian Buttercup Diamond Ring is the perfect representation of one of those charming blossoms.

Victorian Buttercup Diamond Ring, $250

Many a bridal magazine editor has fallen for this Carved Coral Flower Necklace and have asked to borrow it to feature within the pages of their magazine. There’s no wonder why,  roses have been a popular symbol of romantic love since the Victorian era

Carved Coral Flower Necklace, $2800

While the floral motif of these Four Ruby Cluster Stud Earrings may not be immediately apparent, they sweetly and subtly represent a crimson blossom.

Four Ruby Cluster Studs, $260

In the Victorian era, black jewelry was often worn to memorialize a loved one who had passed on; flowers are a timeless symbol of sentiment for an occasion or life event.  Thus this Victorian Onyx Flower Brooch could be gifted to represent a memory or a sentiment.

Victorian Onyx Flower Brooch, $485

Tags: black onyx, buttercup set, coral, diamond ring, flower brooch, flower jewelry, ruby earrings.

Since it is well known that April showers bring May flowers, it’s no wonder that this month I have my eye on blue gemstones – namely aquamarines, sapphires, blue topaz and blue zircon.

You’ll never feel blue wearing an Art Deco sapphire ring, an out-of-this- world aquamarine drop necklace or blue topaz earrings that resemble flowers.

Some of my favorite pieces that use these great precious and semi-precious blue colored stones, here:

Sapphire

The sapphire gemstone is high on the Mohs scale of hardness – it measures as a 9 and is also one of the two varieties of corundum, the other being red ruby. Blue is sapphire’s most well-known color, but the gemstone can also come in yellow, green and pink.

This .60ct Transitional Round Brilliant Diamond Ring is accented by calibre cut sapphires. Calibre cut sapphires are a common accent stone for rings of the Art Deco era, they really reflect the structural feel that was innate in jewelry design at that time.

Art Deco Diamond and Sapphire Ring

Blue Zircon

Acrostic "Z" Blue Zircon Charm Necklace

Blue Topaz

Blue Topaz is the birthstone of December, which is fitting because the stone was once thought to possess cooling properties – ancient civilizations thought that blue topaz could cool both hot water and fiery tempers.

The blue color of the stone forms when clear topaz is heated either naturally or by man.

Blue Topaz and Seed Pearl Flower Earrings

Aquamarine

Technically, aquamarines are a blue or turquoise shade of the stone beryl, which rate at about 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs hardness scale.

While the beautiful aquamarine can be worn anytime, I often find the stone set in platinum or white gold and worn as ‘wedding jewelry’. The bright blue color of the gemstone seems to be just the shade that all the brides want as their ‘something blue’. I’m not complaining about seeing this gorgeous stone more often, especially when they are in the form of this Aquamarine and Diamond Drop Necklace.

Aquamarine and Diamond Drop Necklace

Tags: aquamarine, aquamarine necklace, blue topaz, blue zircon, Sapphire, wedding jewelry.

I literally gasped out loud when I saw this amazing white satin, ostrich feather and beaded gown from the impeccable vintage fashion website The Frock.

Ostrich Feather and Satin Gown

Ostrich Feather and Satin Gown

This gown is my own personal wedding day dress of my dreams. It reminds me of the ballet Swan Lake and the novel The Great Gatsby – swoon.

If you’re wearing this dress on  your wedding day, you need to be wearing the best antique jewels out there. And which era was more glamorous that Art Deco? I can’t think of aanother.

I love these Art Deco Onyx, Diamond and Ebony Earrings.

Art Deco Onyx Diamond & Ebony Earring

Pair them with this Old European Diamond, Sapphire and Onyx Bracelet, and you have got some serious wedding glam on your hands.

Old European Diamond, Sapphire and Onyx Bracelet

Tags: Art Deco, diamonds, onyx jewelry, sapphires.

You’ve been dreaming about your wedding day for as long as you can remember, and the scene plays out like a happy ending from a Jane Austen novel.

Your dress is straight out of a fairytale – hopefully long and flowy and accentuated with laces and beads.

If this sounds familiar, you are the Romantic Bride.

Enhance the romance of the day with a curvaceous Art Nouveau necklace, accentuated with an Art Nouveau bracelet. Since your diamond engagement ring surely has lots of filigree, complement it with an engraved band with a sweet original engraving hidden on the inside.

Old European Cut Diamond Engagement Ring

Sapphire and Diamond Necklace

Art Nouveau Diamond Bracelet

Art Deco Wheat Patterned Band with Engraving

Tags: Art Nouveau jewelry, diamond engagement ring.

If you met him at concert and he has a sleeve of tattoos, and maybe you do, too.

If your first date was to see a foreign film or documentary, and then stop for some beers at a dive bar.

If you live in Brooklyn, Austin, Portland or San Francisco.

Then you are probably an Indie Bride.

The Indie Bride marches to her own tune, and doesn’t follow any of the constructed wedding rules.

Your wedding day jewelry doesn’t have to match, but it does have to be something interesting and edgy that matches your equally as interesting and edgy personality.

Pair your yellow gold vintage diamond engagement ring with a funky engraved wedding band, a Victorian necklace and some vintage patterned hoop earrings to pay homage to your rock roots.

Old European Cut Diamond Solitaire Ring

Patterned Two Toned Wedding Band

Ruby and Diamond Lavalier Necklace

Bamboo Hoop Earrings

Tags: engagement ring, hoop earrings, Victorian jewelry.

Engagement rings of the 1940s were designed in a less elaborate fashion than the Art Deco and early 1900 styles that came before – perhaps because the era saw the onset of World War II.

Solitaire round brilliant cut diamonds, sometimes flanked by baguettes or other small cut diamonds, were prevalent during the 1940s. These pieces were often set in platinum or white gold.

From the 1940s into the 1950s was the era of Retro, and jewelry of this time was inspired by Hollywood starlets. Jewels were big and bold and a variety of gold alloys in various colors were utilized, due to the dearth of platinum. Semi-precious stones, such as aquamarine and garnet, were also used. Although this Retro Ruby Star Set Band was most likely not an engagement ring, it’s a beautiful piece that would look good on a just-engaged hand today.

Ruby Set Engraved Star Band

The majority of Doyle & Doyle’s vintage engagement ring collection comes from before the 1950s, but rings from then until now have the benefit of having a history of style behind them. When it comes to modern engagement rings, anything goes, but we recommend looking to the past for you inspiration.

Round Brilliant Cut and Baguette Diamond Ring

Diamond Cluster Ring

Retro Diamond Ring

Tags: antique engagement rings, Retro, round brilliant cut diamonds.

I found this great green and white taffeta and frock from the 1950s on Vintageous.

Vintage Green and White Wedding Dress

Vintage Green and White Wedding Dress

Now, this style may not be what every bride thinks of when imagining her wedding dress, but I love how the shot of color comes from the cleverly placed green fern motifs. The emerald sash with the big bow in the back is pure elegance.

I could really see this dress being worn for a winter wedding and topped with a cute white vintage fur stole.

And if it’s a winter wedding, why not have your jewelry be all white – in the form of diamonds and platinum and white gold, of course.

One of my favorite pieces of jewelry at Doyle & Doyle – this Diamond Bow Necklace – would be a sweet and simple complement  to the dress’ higher neckline.

Diamond Bow Necklace

Add in a pair of diamond stud earrings and a diamond bracelet, and your ‘white winter wedding with an edge’ look is complete!

Princess Cut Diamond Stud Earrings

Diamond Bracelet

Tags: diamond bow necklace, diamond bracelet, diamond stud earrings, vintage wedding dress.

Never one to give into the ‘all black, all the time’ mantra, the Colorful Bride has a house full of brightly patterned pillows (think of  the amazing Brooklyn-based artist Lena Corwin), and a closet full of clothes that need constant machine washings in Tide-filled water.

Who ever said that you have to have a white wedding?

And even if the dress is white, your accessories sure as heck won’t be.

Pair your colored stone engagement ring with a simpler engraved band but then up your color factor with a colored stone necklace, bracelet and a pair of colored stone earrings.

The stones in your jewelry suite can be all the same – like these beautiful citrine pieces – or you can mix and match stones for an even greater color scale.

Art Deco Sapphire and Diamond Ring

Hand Engraved Wedding Band

Fancy Basket Citrine Earrings

Citrine and Diamond Foliate Necklace

Citrine Vine Bracelet

Tags: Bracelet, colored stones, engagement ring, Necklace.

Of all the styles of engagement rings people are looking for when they come to Doyle & Doyle, I hear the term  ‘Art Deco’ the most.

The Art Deco era lasted from 1920 to 1935 and jewelry from this era was characterized by strong geometrical patterns, streamlined design, symmetry and decoration.

In jewelry, rich colors were introduced in Art Deco designs in the forms of rubies and sapphires. The same holds true for engagement rings of this era – and you’ll often see sapphires or rubies set in platinum and accented by diamonds. Calibre cut sapphire accents are also seen, as well as emerald cut diamond center stones and baguette cut diamond accents.

Like rings of the early 1900s and of the Victorian era, many Art Deco rings also boast an Old European cut diamonds as their center stone. At this time, you’ll also begin to see of Transitional Round Cut diamonds, which is the the cut between Old European and Transitional Round Brilliant, which became the diamond cut of choice from the 1940s and beyond.

Art Deco Geometric Frame Diamond Ring

Art Deco Emerald Cut Diamond Ring

Art Deco Emerald Cut Diamond Ring

Art Deco Sapphire and Diamond Ring

Tags: Art Deco, Art Deco engagement ring, engagement rings, old european cut diamonds, sapphires.