Sometimes people buy estate jewelry, which is a term people use to describe items that have been previously owned. Estate jewelry is usually gotten from the assets of people who are deceased, living, or are private entities, like a company. The term estate jewelry is often used to refer to items that are antique or vintage.

There are many categories of vintage, and they are usually divided depending on their time periods. The first one is Georgian, which is from years 1714 to 1837. This is usually handmade, which can sometimes mean that some of the pieces are not very good quality. It is very rare and usually has designs like leaves and birds, and other nature related designs. The pieces usually had precious stones in them too.

Early Victorian, also known as romantic, antique pieces are from the years 1837 to 1855. These items also had nature designs, but they were mostly etched into gold. Lockets and brooches were some of the most popular, everyday items. At night time, people would usually wear gemstones and diamonds.

Another era of antique items is the Mid-Victorian or grand period which spanned from 1856 to 1880. Many people wore mourning pieces because of the death of Queen Victoria's husband. Some of the more common stones to be used were onyx, jet, amethyst, and garnet, because everyone wanted to use dark and heavy stones. pearl brooch The designs also became more creative and deviated from just nature-inspired.

The Late Victorian period, also called the aesthetic period was from 1885 to 1900. In this period, many jewelers used bright, feminine gems like diamonds, sapphires, peridots, and spinels. There were a lot more star and crescent designs. It was also in this time period that hat pins became very popular.