In with the old

Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery

- Hetty Lintell

I REMEMBER the first (and only) pair of diamond earrings I was given, in my twenties: tiny, antique dragonfly studs from Bentley & Skinner on London’s Piccadilly, purveyors of the finest antique jewellery. ‘You can only have these if you promise to wear them. Don’t leave them sad and lonely in your jewellery box,’ insisted my benefactor. I duly wore them on repeat, even on my wedding day as my ‘something old’.

For those fortunate enough to have a jampacked jewellery box—or pieces snaffled away in strategic hiding places (‘no one will look in the rusty tea caddy at the back of the cupboard’)—I can hazard a guess that you might not wear your more sentimental pieces. Inherited jewellery carries the weight of emotional memories—sometimes lovely, but sometimes sad and complicated, which makes forgetting about them easier than begrudgingly pinning them to a coat lapel once a year. If these jewels don’t fit with your life or simply aren’t your style, selling them to buy something new and shiny is an option—don’t let the money dissolve into the next heating bill or food shop. However, I would encourage owners to think outside the box and commission something special. Rather than replace, rework said sparkler into a piece you (or a beloved family member or fiancée) will cherish wearing and pass down the generations with stories to tell. If only jewellery could talk.