Guide to Buying Antique Diamond Earrings

Whether you are ready to take your relationship to the next level or shopping for antique diamond earrings for yourself, you want to make the right decision when buying diamonds. You want to select a diamond that reflects who you are. You want to buy something your partner will love from the moment they first lay eyes on it. This requires putting forth quite a bit of effort, and if you’ve decided that you want to take your relationship to the next level, then you’ve already decided your partner is worth that extra effort.

Whether you are shopping for antique diamond earrings or something more artsy, here are a few tips to help you make the select the best diamond for your partner.

Browse Online People store a lot of information online, especially information about their interests. Pinterest is the perfect place to sift through tons of earrings. Better yet, if your partner has a Pinterest, that is the first place you should look. Even antique dealers in Chicago have Pinterest pages that showcase their beautiful items.

Personal Style How does your partner dress? Are they super feminine, classic, or just relaxed in their style? Look at other pieces of jewelry that they own. What type of metal is most of their jewelry? Do they have any metal allergies? Most antique diamonds are set in silver. You do NOT want to get your partner silver jewelry, only to have them break out in a rash.

Learn the 4 Cs: Cut, Carat, Clarity, and Color

• • The “cut” isn’t necessarily about the shape. It’s about what makes the diamond sparkle. The diamond is cut in a way that when it interacts with the light, it gives off that “bling” factor. Cuts are graded from poor to excellent.
  • The weight and size of a diamond is measured in carats. The average diamond in a ring or earring is about 200 milligrams which equals 1 carat.
  • Small imperfections in a diamond determine clarity. The smaller the imperfection the higher the “clarity” and the higher the price.
  • • While diamonds come in a spectrum of colors and shades, the rarest ones have no color. The most expensive diamonds are colorless while the least expensive have a visibly yellowish hue. Antique diamonds commonly have a hint of color to them. Then there are deep, natural colors that are becoming increasingly more fashionable like pink, red, blue, and chocolate. These offer more character. Diamonds are assigned a letter grade according to the color spectrum.
   
  • • •    D through F – “colorless”
      •         G through J – “near colorless”
      •         K through M – “faint”
      •         N through R – “very light”
      •         S through Z – “light”
   
  • Visiting antique dealers in Chicago could give you more information on buying antique diamonds. Selecting a diamond shouldn’t be about what you should like because the way a diamond is cut could mask its true color. That means two diamonds can be the same technically but look very different in reality. Your attention to detail is a bigger gift than the earrings themselves.