Ancient Jewelry

The earliest known jewelry comes from a Blombos Cave in South Africa. Perforated shells from sea snails found in the cave date back to 75,000 years ago. This is impressive archeologically, and also historically: jewelry has held a special place in our species' hearts for many thousands of years! Shells were perfect candidates for decorative beads as they were light and abundant, and thin enough to perforate
Early modern humans adorned themselves with bones, berries, and stones. Mammoth ivory were even carved into bracelets. Fast forward to only about 5,000 years ago: in Ancient Egypt, gold is the preferred jewelry material. Incredibly intricate brooches, hair accessories, necklaces, and bracelets featured luxurious lapis lazuli and turquoise. Across the sea, Ancient Greece was using beautiful precious gems like amethyst, pearls, and emeralds in gold and silver jewelry.
These expensive pieces were often copied in less expensive materials. Jewelry was seen to give the wearer protection from the "evil eye" and was a status symbol. While the methods for creating jewelry have changed, it's fascinating to see how similar our tastes in jewelry are today compared to many thousands of years ago.
We still love colorful precious stones, ivory, and gold and silver. ChasingTreasure has the jewelry boxes and cases to help you keep your collection organized and secure so that you can continue in this ancient tradition of enjoying jewelry.

Beautiful Wooden Jewelry Box

Spring Has Sprung with a New Jewelry Fashion Season!

Spring has finally sprung, and of course, with a new calendar season comes a new fashion season. New York Fashion Week and other high-profile fashion shows around the world showcased the trends to look for this season.
According to Harper's Bazaar, jewellery trends for Spring 2014 will certainly scintillate in the sunlight. Gold has made a big comeback (a fact on display at this year's Oscars Red Carpet). Over-sized chains, particularly as part of statement necklaces, are very popular. Linking in with this trend are locks and keys. Other than heavy metal, primary colors are making a bold statement on the runway and in street style. Bright-colored chunky bangles are particularly in style, in pure red, yellow, blue, and green. Their lines are clean and the looks are decidedly modern -- even avant-garde.

Of course, perhaps unsurprisingly, gems in every color of the spectrum are big this Spring. Glittery jewel-toned rings, bracelets, earrings, and necklaces -- from understated to large statement pieces -- made themselves the center of attention for much of this season's fashions. If you're thinking of adding some of these on-trend pieces to your collection, consider investing in a jewelry storage system from ChasingTreasure. Jewelry boxes and chests in a variety of styles, suitable for any decor scheme, make organizing even the largest collection of fashionable accessories a Spring breeze, even for the largest and most diverse of jewelry collections.

Jewelry Amoire for All Shapes & Sizes of Jewelry Collections!

Academy Award Jewelry

The 86th Annual Academy Awards earlier this month saw some of Hollywood's most glamorous stars dressed to the nines -- complete with incredible jewelry pieces.

The A-list actresses adorned themselves with opulent, eye-catching necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings, with values in the millions of dollars. Charlize Theron's statement necklace featured a $15 million Harry Winston Cluster Pendant with a total of 155 diamonds.  Diamonds, of course, are a perennial favorite for the glitterati of the silver screen, but this year's red carpet saw opals, turquoise, and pearls. But perhaps most noteworthy was the prevalence of gold jewelry -- Oscar himself certainly wasn't the only gold at this year's Academy Awards!

Best Supporting Actress winner Lupita Nyong'o wore gold by Fred Leighton:  a gold and diamond headband, gold and diamond earrings, a vintage gold and diamond snake bracelet, as well as several vintage rings.  Gold seems to be making a big comeback this year, much to the joy of jewelry collectors of any budget.

While most personal jewelry pieces will not cost $15 million, they're no less special to the wearer.  And to maintain these treasured collections, jewelry boxes and chests can be just as fantastic.  A luxurious jewelry box can be a standing armoire type with necklace swing sides, or a more modest dresser top, to match any jewelry collection size, and jewelry type.  If security is paramount, partially or fully locking boxes will fit the bill, or (in the case of Ms. Theron?) a jewelry safe may be needed!

Reed & Barton Jewelry Box