Antique and Vintage Asian Jewelry

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About Earthly Adornments

Playing "dress-up" may be pretty common for a couple of sisters, but our mother had an uncommonly good stash. As the beautiful wife of an attorney in 1960's Los Angeles -- whose Depression-era childhood and artistic sensibilities had given her a passion for beautiful things -- our mom loved jewelry.  She was addicted to treasure-hunting at the thrift stores where glamorous Hollywood stars cast off their outdated fashions, in the days when nobody paid any attention to thrift stores. Nobody except, it seemed, our mom.  more....

Articles and News

Vintage Hubei mine turquoise

We recently acquired a treasure trove of high-quality Hubei Turquoise beads from the 1980’s with beautiful clear light blue-green to medium blue-green color.  These beads belonged to a retired owner of a now-closed small company that manufactured sterling silver and gold filled jewelry using high quality semi precious gemstones and semi-precious gemstone beads.  These beads have not seen the light of day for around 35 years and  are now available on our website.  

Vintage Turquoise Beads from Hubei mines

Ancient Jatim were produced in Java in the first milleniium AD. They are large and small polychrome beads named for their close association with east Java, or Jawa Timor. Between 300 and 700CE there was extensive international trade to the east and west, and the Indonesian bead making style was influence the the Roman mosaic and millefiori beads.  More...

Jatim Beads, Ancient Beads from East Java

I was interested to read that perforated shells used as beads were discovered in an archaeologic site in south-east Spain. Besides being perforated by a tool, some of them were stained with hematite, a red colorant. The shells date from the Middle Paleolithic around 48,500 years ago.  More..

Neanderthals & Shell Beads