Luxury Lexicon 20 terms
Jewellery terms
Gemstones, precious metals and the work of jewellery workshops and sales teams.
B
- Bench jeweller
- A bench jeweller fabricates, repairs or alters pieces of jewellery at a workbench.
C
- Cabochon
- A cabochon is a gemstone cut with a smoothly rounded face rather than a pattern of flat facets.
- Carat (gemstone weight)
- A carat is a unit of gemstone weight equal to 200 milligrams.
E
- Engraving
- Cutting a design or lettering into metal or another hard material, by hand with a graver or by machine or laser.
F
- Filigree
- Metalwork made of fine gold or silver wire, twisted or coiled into patterns and soldered, usually as openwork.
- Fine jewellery
- Jewellery made in gold, platinum, silver or palladium, often set with gemstones, as distinct from costume jewellery.
G
- Gemmology
- The study and identification of gemstones and their properties.
- GIA
- The Gemological Institute of America, an organization providing gem research, education and laboratory services.
- Goldsmith
- A maker who forms, solders, assembles and repairs jewellery in gold and other precious metals at the bench.
- Guilloché
- A decorative pattern of repeated engraved lines, traditionally cut into metal with a hand-operated engine-turning machine.
H
- High jewellery
- A jeweller’s top tier of work: unique or very limited pieces built around exceptional stones.
K
- Karat (gold purity)
- A karat measures the proportion of gold in an alloy on a scale of twenty-four.
L
- Lost-wax casting
- Casting metal in a mould formed around a wax model, which is burned out to leave a cavity for the metal.
M
- Métiers d’art
- French for skilled artistic crafts, including disciplines such as embroidery, engraving and decorative metalwork.
P
- Patina
- A surface appearance that develops through use, aging or deliberate treatment, particularly on leather or metal.
- Platinum
- A dense, silvery-white precious metal used in jewellery, including settings for gemstones.
- Precious metals
- Gold, platinum, silver and palladium, worked in jewellery as alloys whose metal content is stated as fineness.
S
- Silversmith
- A maker of vessels, tableware, objects and jewellery in silver, shaped from sheet or cast, then soldered and finished.
- Stone setting
- Securing gemstones in a metal mount so that each is held firmly and shows to best effect.
V
- Vermeil
- Vermeil is silver coated with gold.