Berganza prides itself for having an extensive selection of antique jewelry, with pieces representing the best-of-the-best from each time period. Their jewelry is amazing, with rings from the Art Deco period, mourning jewelry from the Victorian era, and even ancient… Read More
Seattle is a beautiful city in the northwest corner of the United States. Any tourist can visit the popular space needle, ride some ferries, check out the aquarium–but the jewelry treasure hunters know to head to Alexandria Rossoff for rare, antique jewels. Owner Alexandria… Read More
My adventure in California was a whirlwind. It culminated with me passing my 2-stone diamond grading test at GIA on Friday, followed by a road trip to San Francisco. I knew I had to stop by Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry since I have been… Read More
New York City has so much to offer, it is pretty sad that the last time I was in NYC I was in Middle School and went to watch my sister’s gymnastics meet. I am well overdue for a trip and this summer may be the year to do… Read More
Taking your jewelry hunting on the road is my most favorite thing to do. This week we take a look at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where A.Brandt + Son is making a name for themselves. Owner Annette Brandt has experience selling jewelry for over 25 years. Her current… Read More
A fun portion of my trip to California was spent antiquing. We went to two areas--Solana Beach and Ocean Beach, both near San Diego, both totally different. Solana Beach was sort of in an upscale area, while Ocean Beach was right on the ocean and had more of a surfer-dude vibe. It is interesting to compare the two after spending a day antiquing in each. I thought I would be able to find more jewelry in Solana Beach than Ocean Beach--but I was wrong! Solana Beach has its own "Design District" full of amazing shops and boutiques. In Solana, we focused mainly on one large antique place since time was limited. It is called the Antique Warehouse, known to have over 101 vendors inside. The amount of items was overwhelming, but in a good way. They have about ten large glass cases full of fine, antique jewelry. At the time, nothing jumped out at me and items that I did sort of like were priced higher than I was willing to spend. I always make sure not to buy for the sake of buying when it comes to jewelry--I have to REALLY like something before I purchase. That is the biggest tip I have when it comes to antiquing. After looking for a whole solid hour, I went back to this velvet jewelry box from the '70s that I thought was so amazing. I like the color and especially the golden puma on top. I loved that the bottom had "Made in Italy" in gold written, which sealed the deal for me. My grandparents would be proud. Antique Warehouse 212 South Cedros Avenue Solana Beach, CA 92075 The final antique trip was made to Ocean Beach a few hours before my plane was set to leave. At this point I had not purchased any jewelry yet! Newport Avenue is full of antique shops and neat places to grab a bite to eat. We started with several shops, and left disappointed at each one. My departure was quickly approaching, but we were told that Empire Enterprises had "a lot" of estate and antique jewelry. And wow, did we hit the motherload! I was in heaven and it was nice to find out that this place had been owned for over 30 years by the same people who enjoy buying and selling items people don't want anymore. The neatest thing was something I spotted and had to ask about. It was a large treasure chest full of rings--just piles of them, about 200 I'm guessing. If a customer would like, they can go to town looking through the entire treasure chest and "treasure hunt" themselves. Each item in the chest was priced incredibly well. It took me about 15 minutes to go through all 200 rings, but I came out with three that I love. [10k white gold onyx ring 14k yellow gold, filigree rhodolite garnet solitaire ring 18k yellow gold curved diamond band] Empire Enterprises Antiques 4926 Newport Avenue San Diego, CA 92107 Read More
