Grandmas Blue Topaze earrings

[melissa mann]

My grandmother purchased some earrings right from the mine they came from ...where that was will remain a mystery..she lived to 102 so these earrings are probably 60 years old..you can tell its hand crafted because of the irregulars of the setting..no markings at all i don't even know what the metal is ? helpa me please!!! 

how much should i ask for them

[House of Charm Antiques Southinc]

Very cool pieces. Follow 'sold' blue topaz in Fleabay-true spot prices on most things. "what the market will bear' and usually the lowest value on things aside from garage sales.

[vicki hufstetler]

Melissa My Dear, I'm not at all certain those are blue topaz, however, I am fairly certain they are marked and probably have 14K gold settings. The marks will be on the unusual clasps - the small rounded bits that hold the earring to the ear.

Next, they are not 60 years old. You see, ladies were generally "against pierced ears" back in the day, thinking it was a tramp/trollop that would "pierce" ones ears - LOL Sad, but true, I'm afraid. So most all old/antique jewelry in the earring dept. are clips/screw backs etc...

The stones look more clear than topaz, but honestly those pics are pretty blurry. I would suggest you take them to a local jeweler in your area, they will tell you exactly what they are, and may know age and value as well.

Just beware: If a "jeweler/dealer" offers to buy them for a "low" price, don't sell! they are not always the most honest folks. Unless it's someone you trust and or have worked with in the past, I always advise against "selling without real knowledge" to anyone.

Good Luck - they are very pretty!

[melissa mann]

thank you for the reply, still they could be 60 years old my grandmother was her own woman she traveled the world. I think she might have been kinda wild, some of the pics I saw of her ? she was a party girl.I came by it honestly.lol thanks again

[paula]

vicki   i think they might be from the 50 s as my mother had pierced ears and had pierced earrings  with that kind of back for when she got dressed up

i got my ears pierced at the drs when i was 11 years old in 1963 for my 6th grade graduation present

By the late 1950s or early 1960s, the practice re-emerged, but since a large commercial market did not exist, most ear piercings were done at home.^{[citation needed]} Teenage girls were known to hold ear piercing parties, where they performed the procedure on one another. Such an event is depicted in the 1978 motion picture Grease (set in 1959), where Sandy (Olivia Newton-John), the leading lady, is pierced by her friends.

By the mid-1960s, some physicians offered ear piercing as a service.^{[citation needed]} Simultaneously, Manhattan jewelry stores were some of the earliest commercial, non-medical locations for getting an ear piercing.

In the late 1960s, ear piercing began to make inroads among men through the hippie and gay communities, although they had been popular among sailors for decades (or longer).

An ear cuff

A lobe and industrial piercing