This edit of vintage jewelry and antiques is built around the pieces that we think are really special. The pieces included in our Heirloom Edit are the most unique, beautiful pieces we’ve found, transcending trends, and, quite frankly, making our hearts beat fast. All have a superior craftsmanship that’s built to last a lifetime…or many lifetimes. :)

And if you’re looking for vintage jewelry gifts…these one-of-a-kind pieces make incredible, deeply personal gifts. 

We’re a team of history nerds, so we take a lot of care (and have a lot of fun) researching each piece added to this collection. Under a microscope, we’ll search every visible surface for maker’s marks to help identify origin and era, as well as any engravings that show the metal composition. You’ll find all of these notes on the product page of each piece. The most common include:

• SS - Stainless Steel
• .925 - Sterling Silver, 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% alloy
• 1/20 GF - Gold-filled. More durable and resistant than gold-plated, a thick, solid layer of real gold is bonded to a base metal core using heat and pressure. The outer gold layer must make up at least 5% (or 1/20th) of the item's total weight.
• 12K/14K/18K - Karat is the unit of measure for gold quality, out of 24 parts. 24K gold is the finest (24/24 ~ 100% gold purity), 18K gold is 75% pure (18/24 = 75%), 14K gold is 58.3% pure (14/24 =58.3%) and so on.

Vintage Watch Band Bracelets

An exclusive collaboration between The Mom Edit and Kat of Stone Cooper, these one-of-a-kind bracelets are made by hand from a combination of vintage (or deadstock) watch bands and antique jewelry. Kat spends all year sourcing unique pieces from her secret locations (honestly - she won’t reveal her sources!!) to bring us the most amazing finds. We pore over each item, carefully selecting the perfect combination of jewel + watch band to get the vibe exactly right (flirty-but-boyish? Fancy-yet-casual?).  

These exclusive pieces are special, wearable, and wildly collectable. They look great worn alone or stacked. It’s hard not to get hooked on these seriously cool pieces. 

Victorian T-Bar and Watch Chain Necklaces

Working with Kat, we reimagined vintage T-Bar necklaces (complete with the original T-Bars and working dog clips) with vintage brass clasps and bits of vintage chain to create something totally new, exciting, and very wearable. We wanted a T-Bar necklace that could be worn longer or shorter, depending on the outfit, and are thrilled with the result. 

Victorian Slider Necklaces

Before women had clothing with pockets, Victorian women wore one long necklace around their neck, with an adjustable slide and a dog clip. This dog clip was used to attach any important items of their choosing - tiny little scissors, a lorgnette, pencils, or lockets. The necklace itself was adorned with a decorative slider that often had gems or seed pearls inlaid. 

Our Victorian Slider Necklaces are made from authentic, late-Victorian lorgnette chains, and crafted in high-quality vintage gold-fill. Our necklaces retain their original functioning slide and their original dog clip (which still functions). 

Vintage Gold Fill Bracelets

We have chunky link bracelets, delicate link bracelets, scarabs, onyx, bangles, and cuffs, mostly from the 1940s through the 1960s, all in gold-fill. Some are deadstock (which means they were never worn, never sold, and have been sitting in a jeweler's case somewhere for sixty years until Kat discovered them), some are estate finds, and a few have engraved initials or dates on the inside - a little detail that always gets us excited. The history!

Gold-fill is the reason these bracelets are such a find. Gold is over $5,000 an ounce right now, and a solid 14k link bracelet from this era runs well into four figures. Our antique bracelets are priced well below that, but won’t look (or feel!) like a compromise. Mid-century gold-fill was made much thicker than it is now, and after sixty+ years of wear, the gold on our bracelets still looks like…gold.

Antique Lockets And Charms

Our collection of antique lockets include Victorian and Edwardian lockets, sterling silver lockets, or gold-fill lockets. All of our lockets still open and close, and some were found with photographs in them!! (When that happens, we keep the photos intact - and it’ll be noted in the product description.) 

What Gold Fill Actually Means

Gold-fill isn't plating. It's a thick layer of real gold bonded to a base metal core under heat and pressure — at least 5% of the piece's total weight, by law.

The standard of gold-filled jewelry was higher during 20th century peak eras of jewelry making and prior. On today’s market, you’ll come across gold-filled pieces that test to just barely meet the FTC 5% gold requirement. As jewelry and ornamentation rose in popularity through the Victorian, Nouveau and Deco eras, makers took great pride in the heirloom quality of their work, often providing a 20 year (and longer) warranties. And to make these pieces last the test of time, they used more gold in the bonded outer layer.