The Berganza collection dates back millennia, with pieces from bygone eras that have survived hundreds, even thousands of years. Still as wearable today as they were when they were first crafted, there is no better sustainable choice than investing in a unique piece of history.
The quality of antique and vintage jewellery is unparalleled and this can be attributed to the amount of time and skilled work that went into their creation. Craftsmen diligently constructed pieces of jewellery using age-old techniques such as goldworking, mounting, setting gems and enamelling, guaranteeing their beauty and longevity. These techniques, once passed down through generations of families, are now being lost to time. Today fewer apprentices are taking the time to learn to handcraft jewellery, and modern methods of mass production, such as casting, offer a cheap and quick alternative. An unfortunate result of this is that the focus on beauty and longevity has been surpassed by commercial concerns, and jewellery made today is not made to last.The beauty of handcrafted jewellery. For centuries, jewellers considered themselves artisans, with each piece they worked on displaying beautiful and intricate details from every angle. Where the human element has been removed with the production of jewellery today, the resulting pieces lack the charm and character that makes antique jewellery so special and ever-lasting.
We take great pride in acquiring and restoring jewellery from the past. Our specialist workshop houses skilled craftsmen, trained in the traditional techniques, to ensure all work is perfectly in keeping with the age and design of the piece. Bringing a new life and story to jewels which have been around in some cases, for centuries, means that one becomes a conservator of a piece of history, rather than contributing to modern mass production.
Natural gemstones and diamonds are those that have been formed in the earth over billions of years as a result of natural geological processes. Over the past few millennia, these have been unearthed using traditional mining techniques and can be seen decorating jewels throughout history. These mines, known for the high quality material they produced, are long depleted today but their exceptional gemstones still live on in antique jewellery.
When it comes to antique diamonds, each one would have been carefully cut and faceted by hand. Diamond cutters gave every stone its own unique character, sparkle and romance. These important aspects of a diamond are ones which could never be replicated by chemicals or machinery in a factory.
Natural gemstones and diamonds have an inherent beauty and perpetual resale value. They can keep being passed down and reworn for as long as time itself, with no further impact on the environment.
Gold has been recycled throughout the ages, which simply means that it has been melted down and refined to remove any impurities, and then reused. In the same way that Medieval goldsmiths melted down ancient Roman jewellery to create new pieces, we ensure that we too look to the past for gold required for our repairs and restorations. We invest in old gold from across the eras, and when restoration work is undertaken, we do our utmost to find matching gold from the same time period to use. In turn, we recycle gold from our workshops, minimising our waste. By working with recycled gold, we are reducing the need for mining for new resources of precious metals.
We are proud to offer a bespoke collection of wedding rings and eternity bands, each one handmade in England. Our workshop uses ethically sourced or recycled gold and materials. Each ring is made using traditional jewellery techniques and by nurturing talent within the industry, we hope that these skills will continue to be passed down so that when jewellery is created today, it can be crafted with the old principles of beauty and longevity in mind.
Having already stood the test of time, at its very heart, antique jewellery is deeply personal. From its birth in the skilled hands of a jeweller, who carefully selected the most beautiful gemstones and diligently crafted the finest decorative features, to being lovingly selected out of an array of other jewels, each piece is filled with a depth of devotion that simply cannot be found in jewellery today. Jewellery has been intertwined with our most significant and cherished memories throughout history. Utterly unique and ever-lasting, an antique jewel allows those meaningful moments to be passed down throughout the generations, perfectly encapsulating what jewellery is all about.