Antique Green Paste Jewellery
Antique green paste jewellery brings luminous emerald hues to silver and gold settings across several historic eras.
Antique Green Paste Jewellery
When you search for antique green paste jewellery, you find ornamental pieces featuring vitreous glass stones cut to imitate emeralds, spanning Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, and Art Deco periods.
The selections on this page include rings, brooches, pendants, earrings, necklaces, and complete matching sets made from silver, gold, and paste glass.
You are most likely to encounter Victorian and Art Deco brooches and pendants alongside Georgian cluster rings and silver drop lavalier pendants.
How these pieces were made
The construction relies on silver, sterling silver, gold, and rose gold, often housing hand-cut green paste glass stones.
Workshops utilised techniques such as silver gilt, plique-a-jour enamel, and old-cut stone settings to produce intricate floral drops, lizard motifs, and cluster designs.
Antique Green Paste Jewellery Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical asking prices for green paste jewellery among the pieces listed under this phrase on Sellingantiques today, from the lower quarter to the upper quarter. They describe what is for sale here now, not the wider market.
Object forms range from earrings and rings to intricate lizard brooches and rivière necklace sets.
What varies in quality
Quality depends upon the precision of the stone cutting and the complexity of the metalwork, distinguishing simple collet settings from detailed silver gilt or multi-stone rivière designs.
The integration of supplementary materials like pearls, chalcedony, jade glass, or plique-a-jour enamel elevates the ambition of the piece.
Martin Mayer
The Antique Green Paste Jewellery Glossary
- Paste
- A heavy, highly refractive type of lead glass used to imitate gemstones. Skilled artisans cut and polish it by hand to catch the light much like mined stones.
- Rivière necklace
- A necklace composed of a continuous line of gemstones or paste stones of similar size or graduating smoothly. They sit closely around the base of the neck.
- Silver gilt
- Silver that has been coated with a thin layer of gold. This technique provides the warmth of gold while utilising a silver base.
- Plique-à-jour
- An enamelling technique where the enamel is applied without a backing, resembling miniature stained glass. It lets light shine through the translucent coloured areas.
Antique Green Paste Jewellery: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I wear these pieces?
You can style brooches on lapels or scarves, and wear drop pendants and rings as statement accessories for evening or daily wear.
Consider matching sets like rivières and earrings together for a cohesive period look.
How can I tell the period?
Dating relies on stylistic clues, such as the heavy cluster settings of the Georgian period or the geometric lines typical of Art Deco.
Materials also offer hints, with rose gold and silver appearing frequently in earlier pieces.
Were these made to imitate real emeralds?
Yes, paste stones were originally created to provide the opulent appearance of precious gemstones at a different scale.
Over time, they gained recognition for their own artistic and lapidary merits rather than merely acting as substitutes.