The Quiz · Your archetype
The Collector
Old things, bought well, kept longer.
You know what a hallmark is, you have a saved search on an auction site, and you would genuinely rather have a 1930s ring than a new one at twice the price. Your instinct is that the object made by someone who expected it to last is worth finding, and you are usually right, and it is usually cheaper.
Your signature
- The wardrobe
- A vintage coat, altered to fit, in cloth nobody weaves any more
- The jewel
- Something Edwardian with a story you can recite
- The scent
- A reformulated classic you buy in the old concentration
- The escape
- Vienna in November, for the museums and the coffee
- The ritual
- Saturday viewing at a saleroom, whether or not you bid
Your tools
Jewel BoxRing gauge, chains and stonesYour reading list
What The Collector should read next
Jewels Vintage
Buying Jewellery at Auction
Estate jewellery costs a third of the retail equivalent and is the only category most people can resell without loss. What to look for and what to walk away from.
Interiors Furnishing
Buy the Sofa New, Buy Everything Else Old
Auction houses sell better furniture for less than a chain store charges for chipboard. Which categories to buy second hand, and the four to buy new.
Jewels Watches
Your First Serious Watch
Quartz or mechanical, 28 or 36 millimetres, new or vintage. How to buy one watch that will still be right in twenty years and will fit a smaller wrist.
