The terms we use most often when describing antique jewellery, from cuts and settings to periods, marks and symbols. Each one links to pieces in our collection where it helps.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Agate: A banded or patterned variety of chalcedony, widely carved for seals, cameos and intaglios.

Almandine: A deep red to purplish garnet, the garnet most often seen in Roman, medieval and Victorian jewellery.

Antique: Jewellery more than 100 years old. Younger pieces are usually called vintage.

Art Deco: The style of roughly 1920 to 1935: geometric forms, platinum and white gold, and calibré-cut coloured stones. Shop Art Deco jewellery.

Art Nouveau: The style of roughly 1890 to 1910, built on flowing lines, plants, insects and the female figure, often with enamel.

Assay office: An official office that tests precious metal and stamps it with hallmarks. In Britain these include London, Birmingham, Chester, Sheffield and Edinburgh.

Belle Époque: The French term for the years from about 1871 to 1914, overlapping with the Edwardian period, known for lacy platinum and diamond work.

Berlin iron: Cast iron jewellery made in Prussia in the early 19th century, famously given in exchange for gold donated to fund the war against Napoleon.

Bezel: The part of a ring that holds the stone or carries the design.

Bloodstone: A dark green chalcedony with red spots, also called heliotrope, and the classic stone of Victorian men's signet rings.

Box bezel: A raised, box-shaped setting, typical of medieval and Renaissance gem-set rings.

Cabochon: A stone polished into a smooth dome rather than cut with facets. Almost all stones were cut this way before the late Middle Ages.

Cameo: A design carved in raised relief, usually in layered stone or shell. The opposite of an intaglio.

Cannetille: Fine coiled and twisted gold wirework, fashionable in the 1820s and 1830s.

Carnelian: An orange to red chalcedony, the favourite stone for seals from antiquity to the 19th century.

Chasing: Decorating metal by punching and shaping it from the front, without removing any metal.

Closed-back setting: A setting enclosed behind the stone, often with a foil inside, typical of Georgian jewellery. Keep these dry.

Cluster ring: A ring with a group of stones set together, often around a larger centre stone.

Collet: A band of metal that encircles and holds a stone.

Date letter: A letter in a British hallmark that shows the year the piece was assayed.

Desk seal: A seal kept on a writing desk for sealing letters with wax. Their small engraved stones are often set into rings today.

Edwardian: Jewellery from the reign of Edward VII, 1901 to 1910, often extended to the First World War. Known for platinum, diamonds and pearls. Shop Edwardian jewellery.

Enamel: Powdered glass fused onto metal by heat. Black enamel is typical of mourning jewellery.

Engine turning: Precise repeating patterns cut into metal by a turning machine, the basis of guilloché.

Etruscan Revival: 19th-century jewellery inspired by excavated Etruscan gold, with fine granulation and wirework.

Fede ring: A ring showing two clasped hands, a symbol of faith and betrothal since Roman times.

Fob seal: A seal worn hanging from a watch chain. Many antique seal rings are converted fob seals.

Foiling: A thin metal foil placed behind a stone in a closed setting to brighten or tint it, common in Georgian jewellery.

French control marks: Small marks such as the eagle's head for 18ct gold, or import marks such as the weevil, showing a piece was tested in France.

Garnet: A family of red, orange and green gemstones. Deep red almandine garnets were prized from antiquity onwards.

Georgian: Jewellery made from 1714 to 1837, under the four Georges and William IV. Rose cut diamonds, foiled closed settings and paste are typical. Shop Georgian jewellery.

Giardinetto: An 18th-century ring shaped like a small vase or basket of flowers, set with coloured stones.

Girandole: A pendant or earring with three drops hanging from a bow or central motif, fashionable in the 18th century.

Granulation: Tiny grains of gold fused onto a surface to make patterns, used in ancient, Etruscan Revival and Southeast Asian work.

Grand Tour: The journey through Italy made by wealthy 18th and 19th-century travellers, who brought home ancient gems, cameos and mosaics.

Gypsy setting: A setting in which the stone sits flush with the surface of the ring, popular for men's rings in the late 19th century.

Hairwork: Human hair woven, plaited or laid under glass in sentimental and mourning jewellery.

Hallmark: Official marks stamped on precious metal showing its purity, where it was tested and, in Britain, the year.

Heliotrope: Another name for bloodstone.

High-carat gold: Gold of 20 carats and above. Typical of ancient, medieval, Indian and Southeast Asian jewellery.

Iconographic ring: A late medieval ring engraved with saints or religious scenes, worn for devotion and protection. Shop medieval rings.

Intaglio: A design cut into the surface of a stone or glass, so that it leaves a raised image when pressed into wax. Shop intaglio rings and seals.

Jet: A black fossilised wood, polished for mourning jewellery, especially from Whitby in Yorkshire.

Kufic: An early angular form of Arabic script, used on medieval Islamic seals and rings. Shop Islamic rings and seals.

Kundan: An Indian technique of setting stones in pure gold foil, often with enamel on the reverse.

Lapidary: A gem cutter. Also a medieval book describing the powers attributed to precious stones.

Locket: A pendant that opens to hold a portrait, hair or a keepsake. Shop pendants and lockets.

Memento mori: Latin for "remember you must die". Jewellery with skulls, coffins or inscriptions reminding the wearer of mortality.

Milgrain: A border of tiny beads of metal, used to finish the edges of settings, especially in the Edwardian period.

Mondop ring: A tiered Siamese court ring shaped like the roof of a temple. Shop Siam and Southeast Asian jewellery.

Mourning jewellery: Jewellery worn in memory of the dead, often with black enamel, jet, hair and inscribed names and dates.

Navaratna: An Indian ring or jewel set with nine gems representing the nine celestial influences of Hindu astrology, with a ruby at the centre. Shop Indian jewellery.

Niello: A black mixture of metal sulphides inlaid into engraved silver, used in medieval Islamic, Byzantine and Thai work.

Nicolo: Onyx or glass with a thin pale blue layer over a dark ground, cut so a design shows pale on dark. Popular in Roman intaglios.

Old European cut: A round diamond cut of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a small table and high crown.

Old mine cut: A cushion-shaped diamond cut of the 18th and 19th centuries, with a high crown and an open culet.

Ouroboros: A snake swallowing its own tail, an ancient symbol of eternity. Shop snake rings.

Paste: Hand-cut lead glass used as a gemstone in its own right, highly fashionable in the 18th century.

Pavithra ring: A South Indian gold ring formed as a sacred knot, associated with the temple town of Payyanur in Kerala.

Pie-dish ring: A late 13th-century ring with a scooped bezel holding a cabochon, named by Victorian collectors after a pastry dish.

Pinchbeck: A copper and zinc alloy invented in the early 18th century to imitate gold.

Posy ring: A ring engraved with a short motto, or poesy, often given as a love token or wedding ring from the Middle Ages to the 18th century.

Quatrefoil: A four-lobed shape, often used for bezels in medieval and Gothic Revival jewellery.

Regard ring: A Georgian or Victorian ring whose stones spell REGARD with their initials: ruby, emerald, garnet, amethyst, ruby, diamond.

Repoussé: Decoration hammered up from the back of the metal.

Rococo: The playful, asymmetrical style of the mid-18th century, with bows, scrolls and flowers.

Rose cut: A diamond cut with a flat base and a domed top of triangular facets, dominant from the 16th to the early 19th century. Shop rose cut diamonds.

Rubover setting: A setting in which metal is pushed over the edge of the stone all the way round.

Sardonyx: Onyx with layers of reddish-brown sard, ideal for cameos and seals.

Sentimental jewellery: Jewellery made to express love, friendship or remembrance, through symbols, hair, mottoes and hidden messages.

Signet ring: A ring carrying a personal device, such as a crest, monogram or carved stone, for sealing documents in wax. Shop signet rings.

Silver-topped gold: Silver over a gold back, used in Georgian and Victorian diamond jewellery so the diamonds look whiter while gold touches the skin.

Stickpin: A decorative pin worn in a cravat or tie. Many stickpin heads have since been converted into rings.

Stirrup ring: A medieval ring whose hoop rises to a point at the front, usually set with a cabochon such as a sapphire.

Table cut: An early diamond cut with a flat top polished onto the natural crystal, used before the rose cut became dominant.

Tassie: A moulded glass copy of an engraved gem, made by James Tassie and his workshop in late 18th-century London.

Tombeau ring: French for "tomb ring": a raised, pyramid-shaped enamelled bezel revived in French regional jewellery around 1830.

Victorian: Jewellery from Queen Victoria's reign, 1837 to 1901, rich in sentiment and symbolism. Shop Victorian jewellery.

Vintage: Jewellery that is old but less than 100 years old.

Wax seal: The impression left in warm sealing wax by a seal or signet, used to close and authenticate letters.

Yellow gold: Gold alloyed mainly with silver and copper to keep its warm colour. Carat measures the gold content out of 24.

Zircon: A natural gemstone with strong fire, not to be confused with the synthetic cubic zirconia.