Abacus
Antique Dealers: How to clean and care for antique
jewellery
Antique
jewellery is becoming more popular for collecting
for its beauty and of course eventually to sell for
a huge profit in the majority of cases, as such it
is essential that every care is taken when it comes
to the care and cleaning of your precious antiques.
Of course depending on what the actual piece of jewellery
is made of, will depend on what is used to clean the
jewellery and how you should look after it. Different
materials will also pose and present different problems
with such as tarnishing, so here are some tips when
it comes to cleaning and taking care of you antique
jewellery.
If
the piece is mostly made from gold then how you take
care of it will depend largely on the karat of the
gold, some gold is softer than others and so is more
prone to tarnishing. This is due to other material
being used with the gold and gold is a much softer
metal. Gold items that have an high gold density are
very hard to keep free from scratches and great care
needs to be taken when it comes to the substances
used for cleaning, abrasive substances need to be
avoided at all cost when cleaning 24 karat jewellery
and indeed any gold jewellery and if there are precious
stones in the jewellery then this presents even more
problems.
If
you are going to be attempting to clean gold jewellery
yourself rather than put it in the hands of a specialist
antique jeweller then you should use a very soft toothbrush
such as those sold with children and babies in mind
and use nothing else but warm soapy water.
Silver
jewellery can present problems too and care must also
be taken when attempting to clean these pieces yourself.
The same goes when it comes to storing pieces and
it is best to wrap the pieces individually in old
newspaper before storing away. However if you are
going to be storing them away for any length of time
then wrap them in acid free paper before wrapping
them in newspaper.
It
is also essential that you store silver in a cool
dark and dry place and when it comes to cleaning and
polishing silver jewellery then a very soft cloth
with bring back the shine and remove any tarnish from
the item. Great care should be taken with silver jewellery
as if it is only silver plated this can be rubbed
off to reveal the coating underneath which is not
only very unsightly but also reduces the value of
the piece.
Taking
care of jewellery that has precious stones in it needs
very careful handling as it is very easy to remove
the casings holding the stones in place and which
will eventually lead to the stones working loose and
falling out which of course can destroy a wonderful
and valuable piece .
If at anytime you are in doubt when it comes to cleaning
and taking care of your antique jewellery then always
seek the advice of an expert, some pieces especially
those of particular value can have their value greatly
reduced if the wrong care and cleaning methods are
used.
