#Jewelry #Collection #Story #Aly #baubleography #Gem #Gossip #Jewelry #Blog
Today’s Jewelry Collection Story comes from Aly of @Baubleography – one of my favorite Instagram accounts to follow! Her taste in jewelry is impeccable and it is very unique, precise. I love all her old cut diamonds – the wonkier the better, the best have big culets and uneven silhouettes. I can’t wait to share her story and give you a peek inside her jewelry box. Let’s go:
“So the ernest dreamer part of me would say I have been collecting since I was 7 years old, when my mom gave me an opal ring that my dad gave her when they were highschool sweethearts (which, to be totally honest, I promptly lost on the school yard and to this day have deep-rooted despairing regrets about). However, in truth, I’ve only seriously been collecting (the kind of collecting that takes intention, consideration, research… and, you know, some semblance of a disposable income) since 2017. I am a small town midwesterner who went to a very liberal conceptual art school (School of the Art Institute of Chicago, heyooo!), and I spent my formative young adult years working in small art galleries around the city. I used to obsess over the incredible modern jewelers some of the galleries represented, and I remember one of my first “dream jobs” being the idea of buying for the MOMA gift shop! As I got a bit older and my studies focused on Medieval and Renaissance monastic and monarchical portraiture, I found myself spending more and more time researching the jewels of the figures I was studying than of the methods of historical record or history of the painters themselves. I “acquired” my first real piece of vintage jewelry in 2009 as a 2nd year in college (which I attached a photo of!) and never really looked back from there. I remember choosing this ring over my cable bill that month, and wore it proudly for years after that to remind myself that sometimes it was okay to make a sacrifice for something that was truly special – material or not. To this day, I still wear this little 1940’s bauble to remind myself where my true love of rings started, and how it never truly ages.”
“I am an absolute sucker for Art Deco and Victorian era pieces. I have been lucky enough to meet some truly incredible jewelers and sellers (thank you INTERNET!) and have learned so much about the many eras of jewelry that still live abundantly in collections today, but when push comes to shove, the history behind Victorian and Romantic era pieces, and the way Art Deco took on so many elements of the world around it to encompass innovation and yet honor the past – gets me every time. My folks always valued creativity and individuality over everything else, and they encouraged and pushed me my whole life to embrace the parts of me that made me different from those around me. It made for some super awkward years, sure, but I think that mindset rubbed off on how I seek out jewelry – there is nothing more beautiful than something that stands on its own two feet, but on a foundation of meaning and sentimentality. Two people I would invite to my Dinner Party from the Past are Queen Victoria and Margaret Greville, and I would beg them both to bring literally all the jewelry they could fit on their bodies with them.”
“I used to love going to Estate Fairs and Antique malls in every place I traveled to, back when the world was a bit more open and we could meet people and get to know the history of pieces in person *sobs in pandemic*, but I have truly been floored by the doors opened by Instagram in the last 2 years. I started meeting people through the grapevine of buying something here and there and then finding other folks who also bought or collected from that seller or store… and that led to building an amazing network of real life friends! I have found incredible pieces from good friends in Germany, the UK, Australia and France, and so many incredible collectors all over the US in the last few years. Ruby Lane was a revelation when I discovered it, and I equate it to the first time I used Ebay as a kid and had this world of THINGS at my fingertips. All in all though, I spend most of my time with small individual or family-owned antique and vintage ships, and more than not, independent sellers who’s store fronts exist on Etsy or their own pages. My forever favorite place on earth will always be the small jewelry store in the town I grew up in (The Gem Shop in Rockton, IL), where I was first introduced to both antique and estate jewelry, along with the custom designed pieces from the jeweler who owns and runs it. I bought my first piece of jewelry EVER with my own money when i was 12 years old from The Gem Shop, and still have it now – a sterling silver wide floral band with a small green jade bezel set in the center. To this day, I visit the shop anytime I get to go home, and make sure to try on every single ring in their cases.”
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“I will never be able to fully express the gratitude I have for the wonderful sellers I have met over the years, who not only entrust me to take in beloved pieces, but also share their incredible histories with me when they can. I remember being much younger and thinking the value of a piece of jewelry was based solely on the quality of the materials, but I now am a full believer in the history of something holding far more weight than the amount of gold that something is made from. While so many of my rings have incredible histories, I do have one particular ring that came to me as a literal stroke of luck. In 2011, I worked at a small “art gallery” in Chicago that was… to put it nicely, not a nice place to work. The owner and family that owned the establishment practiced poor business methods and were deeply unkind people, and my experience working there was not a highlight of my life. Towards the end of my time there, I would take breaks outside of the shop and angstily sit on the curb, no doubt having fake arguments in my head and daydreaming about quitting (we all know that feeling). One particularly rainy day, I was sitting at the curb kicking around some dirt and leaves, and something sparkly caught my attention. I legitimately dug through gutter mud for a good ten minutes (in my pencil skirt and heels!) until I uncovered a ring set – a solitaire in some silver metal soldered together with a plain silver covered band. The stone in the solitaire was far too big for me to even fathom that it was real – plus, you know, I just dug it out the dirt on a Chicago city street. I felt incredibly guilty at the idea that someone may have lost something they loved, though, so I brought the rings into the office building closest to where I was sitting and turned them over to the security guard at the front desk. I left my name and number, promptly posted about the missing rings on Craigslist (remember that??) and then resumed my curbside pouting until my break was over. Fast forward about 2 months, and what felt like infinite spam messages on Craigslist, and I received a call from the security guard at the office building letting me know the rings were never claimed from lost and found. She asked me to come get the rings from her, and bless this dear woman’s soul, INSISTED that I came to get them when I at first told her to simply throw them out. To this day, I secretly thank her in my mind and wish I could find her again and hug her. I ended up taking the rings to my hometown gem shop “just to see, because you never know”, and ended up discovering that the rings were IN FACT “real”. Made of engraved platinum and hallmarked with a faint 1940-something date on the inside, the stone was about a carat and had incredible clarity and color. I struggled for a long time making up scenarios in my head that could have landed a set such as this in the dirt, and whether or not I would be cursed for eternity for keeping it. Was it an accident that it was parted from its owner? Was it out of anger that it was removed and thrown onto the street? Was someone even missing it in its absence? In the end, I had the rings unsoldered and turned the band over to the gem shop so the gold could be put to better use. As for the solitaire, I was never able to sell it, as it felt like coming across this piece the way I did was the closest thing to fate I might ever experience. A decade later, and she is still with me. I don’t wear her all that much, to be honest, but always dreamed that one day she might be a ring of bigger significance for me when the time came.”
“My most recent find is a tie between two rings who landed on my hand in the same week: one is a yellow gold art deco ring, showcasing an oval onyx shield with a sunshiny old mine cut in the center (in the photo with the bloodstones!), which came from one of my closest friends in the UK, Galina of Pocket Jewels! The second ring is an incredible white gold 4-stone old mine cut diamond ring, with the stones suspended in a circle on top of the finger… almost like a circlet on the hand (also in one of the photos below). This one came from a friend in Wales, Ella of Dolwenbelle! Both of their shops are on Etsy and they are also both on instagram! My most sentimental piece(s) are two opal pendants that were a gift from my mom. She got one from my dad when they were in middle school, and the other was an anniversary gift from him in college – can you see a theme here? The woman has always loved opals. I also love the mixed history of symbology behind opals – good luck, bad luck, evil eye, eternal youth… it’s very powerful and they are absolutely priceless to me. When it comes to something I wear everyday, it changes week over week honestly. Right now, my go-to, haven’t-left-my-hands-in-a-
