Art Deco Jewellery
Jewellery in the geometric, machine-age idiom that spread between the two world wars, made both as gem-set rings in gold and platinum and as inexpensive dress pieces in silver, paste and marcasite.
Art Deco Jewellery
The heading covers a broad body of early-20th-century jewellery, but one form dominates it. Diamond is named in 2,589 of 3,328 titles on Sellingantiques and ring in 2,413. The piece you are most likely to be looking at is a gem-set ring in 18ct gold, platinum, or gold with platinum settings, described by stone weight in carats and by cut.
Within the rings, engagement rings are the largest named type, followed by cluster rings, solitaires and trilogy or three-stone designs. Coloured stones make up a substantial minority and often sit alongside diamonds in the same setting: sapphire leads at over five hundred titles, roughly two and a half times emerald or ruby, with aquamarine, opal, jadeite, zircon and peridot appearing in individual listings.
Away from the rings sits a smaller population of dress jewellery. Earrings, pendants, necklaces, brooches and bracelets account for about a fifth of listings between them, and among these are silver, paste, marcasite and enamel pieces, plus Bakelite and chrome, at the bottom of the range. Men's jewellery is a small slice: cufflinks, collar studs, tie pins, stickpins and signet rings.
Dating is unusually complete for a jewellery category, with a clean year on 3,060 of 3,328 listings. The 1930s are the busiest decade at 1,528, ahead of the 1920s at 1,013, and the field runs from 1880 to 1960 with Edwardian, 1940s and a handful of 1950s and 1960s entries. Many are approximate, so a decade in that field is a dealer's estimate rather than a hallmark reading, and it sometimes disagrees with the circa date written into the same title.
Where The Range Splits
Stated stone weight does more work than anything else. Sampled diamond weights run from a twelfth of a carat up to a 33.25-carat diamond bracelet at the very top, and 1,148 titles carry the word carat at all. Weight sits alongside metal: 18ct gold and platinum titles occupy the upper range, while silver, chrome, brass and Bakelite pieces cluster at the bottom, far below the diamond bracelets.
Gemstone description separates the rest. Titles specifying a named origin such as Ceylon, Kashmir, Burmese or Mogok, and Colombian, or simply the word natural, sit at the upper end. Kashmir sapphire appears just once in the sampled titles. Paste and faux stones sit at the other end, standard in the silver dress jewellery.
Form matters too. Line and panel bracelets, fringe necklaces and plaque rings appear high in the range, where single studs, plain bands and bar brooches appear low. A small number of titles note an original box, boxed, or a gem report, and those notes read upward.
Art Deco Jewellery Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for art deco jewellery, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Now and then the category strays off jewellery altogether: a propelling-pencil fob pendant, a crystal tiara hair comb, a hat pin and collar studs have all turned up.
The Art Deco Jewellery Glossary
- Old cut
- A pre-modern hand-cut diamond with a small table and open culet. Some form of "cut diamond" appears in over eleven hundred titles, old European cut among them.
- Cluster
- A central stone ringed by smaller ones. Over five hundred titles mention cluster and 409 say cluster ring outright, making it the workhorse setting of the category.
- Trilogy
- A ring set with three graduated stones, also written as three stone. Around 181 titles use the word.
- Solitaire
- A single-stone ring, named in 211 titles. The plainest of the ring forms and usually where a stated carat weight does all the talking.
- Calibré cut
- Small stones cut to fit a channel, named in a handful of sapphire settings. It gives the crisp geometric lines the idiom is known for.
- Marcasite
- Faceted iron pyrite set in silver, common in the lower-priced brooches and earrings, often paired with paste, which is glass imitating gemstones.
Art Deco Jewellery: Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of piece dominates this category?
A diamond-set ring. Of 3,328 listings, 2,413 say ring and 2,589 say diamond, a concentration few jewellery categories on Sellingantiques match.
Engagement rings are the single largest named type, with cluster rings next, then solitaires and trilogy rings.
Which metals turn up most in the listings?
Gold in general appears in 1,040 titles, with 18ct named in 791 and platinum in 790. White gold appears in 267 and 9ct in 161.
Many rings combine the two, a gold shank with a platinum setting for the stones. Silver appears in 176 titles, largely in the dress jewellery.
Are any of these pieces signed by a maker?
Signatures are essentially absent from the titles in this category. No maker names were drawn from the archive at all.
What the titles carry instead is stone, weight, cut, metal and a date.
How reliable is the date given on a listing?
The dated field is unusually well filled, with a clean year on 3,060 of 3,328 listings, spanning 1880 to 1960.
Many of those years are approximate, and circa 1930, circa 1920 and circa 1935 recur. The decade in that field is a dealer's estimate, and it can disagree with the circa date written in the same title.
Which coloured stones appear alongside the diamonds?
Sapphire leads at 567 titles, roughly two and a half times emerald at 229 and ruby at 199. Aquamarine follows at 102.
Beyond those, individual titles bring in opal, jadeite, zircon, chrysoberyl, tourmaline, peridot and spinel. Target rings, a concentric cluster design, recur through the sapphire and ruby listings.
Does the category include anything other than jewellery?
Occasionally. The archive throws up a propelling-pencil fob pendant, a crystal tiara hair comb, a hat pin, collar studs and several ladies' cocktail wristwatches.
Men's pieces form their own small slice, mostly cufflinks at 95 titles, with tie pins, stickpins and signet rings in the samples.