How To Bring Antique Jewelry Back To Life
Original article written for Southern Living
PHOTO: AVRORRA/GETTY
To technically be considered “antique,” a piece of jewelry needs to be at least 100 years old. Whether it’s a passed-down heirloom that once belonged to Grandma's grandma or a prized find from an antique store, such a historied artifact deserves top-notch care. It also deserves to be shown off. George Peralta from M.S. Rau, a renowned New Orleans antique shop, encourages those lucky enough to possess antique jewelry to take good care of it so that they can don it proudly.
George Peralta is the jewelry sales manager of M.S. Rau, an antique shop in New Orleans, Louisiana that has sourced antique jewelry for over a century.
“The main reason that cleaning antique jewelry is important is that it motivates you to wear it more,” says Peralta. “When clients come in for a cleaning, we hear all the time their excitement because we’ve brought life back to the jewelry piece.”
Without cleaning and upkeep, time may not be so kind to antique jewelry. Here in the South however, we age gracefully and prefer for our jewels to do the same. To help, here’s Peralta’s best tips on how to resuscitate mature jewelry and keep it full of life.
