Two pictures. Your choice.

By midcentury, even the locket had changed clothes. Gone were the flowers, flourishes and romantic ornament of earlier generations. This one arrived dressed for a new world: graphic, geometric, textured in alternating rhythms of gold. But open it, and the old purpose remains. Two small photographs, carried close.

Made in France and marked Plaqué Or Laminé, Cadence carries a particularly French bit of jewelry history. Or laminé was a quality gold-layer construction, made by mechanically bonding a substantial layer of gold to a base metal rather than depositing the very thin surface layer associated with ordinary electroplating. The result was jewelry made to wear and endure more like gold, which helps explain why the finish on this little locket has survived so beautifully.

Open it and the geometry continues inside, framing two oval spaces for photographs. Both metallic paper photo inserts remain in place.

Details

• Era: Midcentury, stylistically dated c. 1940s–50s
• Origin: France
• Material: Plaqué Or Laminé (French laminated gold)
• Mark: Plaqué Or Laminé
• Measurements: Approx. 7/8 × 3/4 inch
• Interior: Two oval photo compartments with metallic paper inserts
• Condition: Good vintage condition with light surface wear consistent with age and a small shallow ding to the center polished panel, as shown. Gold-laminated finish remains very well preserved. Locket opens and closes securely and retains both metallic paper photo inserts.
• Styling Notes: Small enough to layer. Interesting enough not to disappear.

Please Note: Jewelry box, chains, styling props, and any additional items shown in photos are for display purposes only unless specifically listed as included.

Your piece will arrive carefully packaged in RetroStarr presentation wrapping, ready for gifting, collecting, or immediate wear.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

The first time you see it, it doesn't quite look real.

The Cadet Chapel belongs to a short list of buildings that architecture people cannot stop talking about. The proportions. The optimism. The audacity of it. More than sixty years after its completion, it still looks like it arrived from somewhere slightly ahead of schedule.

This sterling silver charm captures the unmistakable silhouette of the United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, one of the most celebrated works of American Midcentury Modern architecture. Designed by Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1962, the chapel remains a landmark of architectural optimism, engineering ambition, and sculptural design. Despite its tiny scale, the geometry is instantly recognizable. A miniature monument to one of the most iconic buildings of the modern era.

Details

• Era: Midcentury, c. 1960s–1970s

• Material: Sterling Silver

• Motif: USAF Cadet Chapel

• Size: Approximately 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch

• Hallmarks: Marked Sterling; "Cadet Chapel USAF Academy" on reverse

• Origin: United States

• Style: Architectural charm / souvenir charm

• Condition: Clean vintage condition with light surface wear consistent with age

Please Note: Jewelry box, chains, styling props, and any additional items shown in photos are for display purposes only unless specifically listed as included.

Your piece will arrive carefully packaged in RetroStarr presentation wrapping, ready for gifting, collecting, or immediate wear.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

Because practicality had already been accounted for.

The smallest luxuries often leave the strongest impression. Caprice delights in details: curling scrolls, a softly puffed center, and a silhouette that transforms a simple pendant into something unmistakably antique. It asks for very little attention and somehow manages to hold onto it anyway.

Originally suspended from a watch chain, Caprice brought ornament to an object already defined by function. The openwork design and gently domed center create a surprising sense of volume despite its petite scale. Sourced in Paris and no larger than a postage stamp, it arrives as proof that the smallest objects are sometimes the hardest to forget.

Details

• Era: Victorian, c. 1900–1910
• Origin: Paris, France
• Material: Gold Filled
• Size: Approximately 1/2 inch x 3/4 inch
• Style: Watch pendant / watch chain accessory pendant
• Hallmarks: None
• Condition: Good antique condition with wear consistent with age and use. A small area of wear to the gold fill is present at the raised center cartouche on one side, visible upon close inspection and shown in photographs. The openwork details remain crisp and well defined, and the pendant retains its original charm and functionality.

• Styling Notes: Small enough for everyday wear yet distinctive enough to anchor a layered story, Caprice pairs beautifully with antique watch chains, fine gold necklaces, and collected charms from different eras.

Please Note: Jewelry box, chains, styling props, and any additional items shown in photos are for display purposes only unless specifically listed as included.

Your piece will arrive carefully packaged in RetroStarr presentation wrapping, ready for gifting, collecting, or immediate wear.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

Even a placeholder can carry weight.

A sculptural sterling silver bookmark defined by clean line and symbolic form. The stylized bird sits like an emblem at the top, while the elongated silver blade slides decisively between pages. Functional, graphic, and intentional, it turns a simple gesture into a considered one.

Produced in midcentury Mexico, this piece was made by Citlali, a silversmith workshop known for translating ancient Mesoamerican imagery into modern silver design. Executed in solid sterling, the bird motif reads as sign, not decoration. Balanced, purposeful, and designed to be used rather than admired from a distance.

Details

• Era: Midcentury

• Origin: Mexico

• Metal: Sterling silver

• Size: 2 1/4 inches x 11/16 inch

• Style: Sculptural bookmark / desk object

• Hallmarks: Mexico, Citlali, 6P35, 925

• Condition: Clean vintage condition with light surface wear consistent with age.

Please Note
Jewelry box, chains, styling props, and any additional items shown in photos are for display purposes only unless specifically listed as included.

Your piece ships in RetroStarr’s branded packaging with care instructions included.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

She had opinions.

More than a century later, she still appears ready to share them. Framed beneath crystal and surrounded by a halo of pink stones, she meets your gaze with an expression that reads somewhere between amusement and appraisal. Whoever she was, she understood the power of being remembered on her own terms. The portrait remains, equal parts keepsake and introduction, waiting for the next person willing to carry her story forward.

Six vivid pink stones and a finely worked gold-filled openwork halo elevate the portrait from memento to adornment. The mother-of-pearl backing catches the light beneath the crystal, giving the miniature an unexpected glow. She crossed more than a century to arrive here from Paris, carrying her identity intact and her story largely to herself.

Details

• Era: Victorian, c. 1890–1910
• Origin: Paris, France

• Material: Gold Filled, Mother of Pearl
• Stones: Six pink open-back stones

• Size: Approximately 1 1/4 inches in diameter
• Style: Portrait miniature pendant
• Hallmarks: DS
• Condition: Good antique condition with age-appropriate wear. Portrait remains clear beneath the rock crystal cover. Mother-of-pearl backing retains a lovely luminosity. Pink stones are intact and well matched. Surface wear consistent with age is present upon close inspection.

• Styling Notes: Wear Colette on a simple antique chain and let her do the talking, or layer her among lockets and charms as the undeniable focal point of a collected, storied neck stack.

Please Note: Jewelry box, chains, styling props, and any additional items shown in photos are for display purposes only unless specifically listed as included.

Your piece will arrive carefully packaged in RetroStarr presentation wrapping, ready for gifting, collecting, or immediate wear.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

Heat, held at the center.

Everything else forced to orbit. A red point of pressure with gold radiating like an argument you cannot interrupt. Pearls keep it civilized. The rest of it does not.

Crafted in 10K gold, this postwar French brooch-pendant features a radiant starburst form set with seed pearls and a synthetic ruby at its core. The construction reflects late 1940s to early 1950s French design, balancing optimism and control through bold geometry and restrained detail. Designed to be worn as either a brooch or pendant, the reverse reveals clean, era-correct mechanics that support both modes with intention.

Details

• Era: Postwar French, circa late 1940s–early 1950s

• Origin: France

• Metal: 10K gold

• Gemstones: Seed pearls, synthetic ruby (tested)

• Size: Approximately 1 1/2 inches

• Weight: 6.19 grams

• Style: Convertible brooch-pendant

• Hallmarks: French eel import stamp

• Condition: Clean vintage condition with light surface wear consistent with age

Chain shown for styling purposes only and is not included. Your piece ships in RetroStarr’s branded packaging with care instructions included.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

Some women preferred their drama distilled.

By the 1970s, jewelry had started moving toward cleaner lines and sharper decisions. Color appeared more strategically. Gold became less decorative and more structural. Pieces like this sat perfectly within that shift. Graphic enough to hold attention, restrained enough to wear constantly, and designed with the kind of proportion that only works when every element is doing its job properly.

Crafted in 14k gold and richly colored carnelian, this vintage pendant carries a distinctly modernist sensibility. The elongated geometric silhouette gives it a sculptural presence that layers beautifully with chains or settles naturally into everyday wear. Warm, graphic, and confidently composed.

Details

• Era: c. 1970s
• Materials: Carnelian mounted in acid-tested 14K gold. The removable jump ring acid tests 10K and appears to be a later replacement. The fixed suspension loop shows evidence of an older professional repair.
• Hallmarks: Unmarked
• Size: Approximately 3/4 in x 3/8 in
• Weight: 2.87 grams
• Style Notes: Especially effective as the single line of warmth in an otherwise monochromatic outfit
• Condition: Light surface wear consistent with age; carnelian remains well polished with crisp faceting and no visible chips or cracks. Under magnification, the fixed suspension loop shows evidence of an older repair, and the removable jump ring is a later 10K replacement. Both are secure and fully functional.

Please Note: Jewelry box, chains, styling props, and any additional items shown in photos are for display purposes only unless specifically listed as included.

Your piece will arrive carefully packaged in RetroStarr signature wrapping, ready for gifting or keeping entirely for yourself.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

The Victorians rarely traveled alone.

By the turn of the 20th century, photographs were still formal occasions. People dressed carefully, sat still, chose their best angle, and then carried those selected versions of one another around for decades beneath rock crystal and silver frames. Portrait lockets like this weren’t casual objects. They were deliberate decisions about who deserved permanent proximity.

This antique sterling silver photo locket pendant features dual beveled rock crystal windows containing two surviving gentleman’s portraits, both remarkably intact beneath their original covers. Sourced in France, the thick crystal gives the photographs an unusual depth and clarity in person, while the softly darkened silver frame and oval silhouette retain the formal restraint typical of the period. Most antique lockets no longer contain their original photographs, which makes this example feel especially complete.

Details

• Era: Late Victorian to Early Edwardian, c. 1890s–1910s
• Material: Sterling Silver & Rock Crystal
• Hallmarks: None
• Size: Approx. 1.2 inches long x 1 inch across
• Origin: Sourced in France
• Interior: Retains two original gentleman’s portraits beneath beveled rock crystal covers
• Style Notes: Especially compelling worn slightly longer where the crystal catches light and the portraits reveal themselves gradually
• Condition: Very good antique condition with light surface wear and softly darkened silver patina throughout. Rock crystal remains intact on both sides with surviving original photographs securely in place.

Please Note: Jewelry box, chains, styling props, and any additional items shown in photos are for display purposes only unless specifically listed as included.

Your piece will arrive carefully packaged in RetroStarr signature wrapping, ready for gifting or keeping entirely for yourself.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

Because sometimes your jewelry needs to make the first move.

This vintage cocktail ring stacks the drama three tiers high. Featuring nine vivid pink sapphires (likely lab-grown) and ten glittering single-cut diamonds, it builds upward in a sculptural dome, all set in cool 14K white gold.

Made in the Retro Revival era of the 1960s–70s, this power ring captures everything we love about midcentury excess—bold sparkle, unapologetic glamour, and serious heirloom energy.

• Ring Size: 6 (can be resized within reason by your jeweler—or ours)
  

• Metal: 14K White Gold (stamped)
  

• Stones: 9 pink sapphires (likely lab-grown, untested), 10 single-cut diamonds (~0.25–0.30ctw) 

• Markings: 14K KLL
  

• Origin: USA, 1960s–70s
  

• Condition: Excellent vintage condition with minimal wear
  

• Weight: 5.50g
  

Your piece will arrive in RetroStarr’s signature gift box—ready to gift, wear, or pass down.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA-trained founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

Never returned.

By morning, it no longer resembled a temporary arrangement. Nobody seemed especially interested in correcting the situation.

Originally intended for a waistcoat pocket and far less interesting circumstances, this early 20th century gold filled Albert chain feels unusually modern worn at the neck. The engraved elongated links, weighty T-bar, and Hayward dog clip still carry the precision of their original purpose, though the overall effect now lands somewhere closer to tailored eveningwear than utility. It has the kind of sharpness that emerged as jewelry moved away from Victorian excess and toward the cleaner, more self-possessed lines of the Edwardian era.

Details

• Era: Edwardian / Early 20th Century
• Length: 17.5 inches
• Material: Gold Filled, T-bar is silver toned
• Hallmarks: Hayward marked dog clip; T-bar marked “OMD”
• Style: Albert watch chain with engraved elongated links and T-bar
• Closure: Original dog clip closure
• Condition: Beautiful antique condition with age-appropriate wear consistent with period gold filled jewelry. 
• Styling Notes: Wears beautifully alone at the collarbone or layered with finer chains, lockets, swivels, or charms

Your piece will arrive carefully packaged in RetroStarr presentation wrapping, ready for gifting, collecting, or immediate wear.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

Please Note: Jewelry box, styling props, and any additional items shown in photos are for display purposes only unless specifically listed as included.

The scale feels precise, almost withheld, which is exactly why it lands.

A slim gold band with a lightly hammered surface, designed to live above the knuckle and make its point quietly. The placement shifts the balance of the hand just enough to register. Subtle at first glance. Slightly defiant once noticed.

Vintage in origin, this ring reflects a pared-back approach to gold that favors texture over display. Crafted in solid 14k gold with a hand-worked finish, the surface shows soft variation from making and wear. Meant to be worn mid-finger, where restraint becomes the statement.

Details

• Era: Vintage

• Metal: 14k Gold

• Size: 2.5

• Style: Minimal band, hammered finish

• Markings: unmarked

• Condition: Clean vintage condition with light surface wear consistent with age.

Your piece ships in RetroStarr’s branded packaging with care instructions included.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.

Practicality deserved its pleasures.

A fresh carnation tucked into a lapel before dinner. A single rosebud pinned to a jacket on an ordinary Tuesday. Flourish was designed for exactly these moments, transforming a simple bloom into an act of self-expression. Jewelry, yes—but also an invitation to notice the small rituals that make a life feel fully lived.

Produced by Atlas Manufacturing Co. of New York around 1950, this signed novelty brooch captures the mid-century talent for elevating the everyday. Designed as a miniature flower holder, its polished vase form allowed the wearer to carry a fresh blossom wherever she went, blurring the line between adornment and gesture. Equal parts practical and whimsical, it remains every bit as charming today as when it first appeared on a well-tailored lapel.

Details

• Era: c. 1950
• Origin: New York, USA
• Maker: Atlas Manufacturing Co.
• Weight: 15.4 grams
• Measurements: Approximately 1 inch x 2 1/8 inches
• Style: Flower / corsage holder brooch
• Hallmarks: Signed Atlas
• Materials: Mixed metal construction with polished silver-tone finish; replacement sterling silver pin assembly
• Condition: Very good vintage condition with wear consistent with age and use. The original flower holder remains fully functional. The pin assembly has been professionally replaced in sterling silver to ensure continued wearability.

• Styling Notes: Tuck in a tiny carnation, rosebud, violet, or sprig of lily-of-the-valley for a look that feels equal parts tailored and romantic. Just as striking worn empty, allowing its unusual silhouette to speak for itself.

Please Note: Jewelry box, chains, styling props, flowers, and any additional items shown in photos are for display purposes only unless specifically listed as included.

Your piece will arrive carefully packaged in RetroStarr presentation wrapping, ready for gifting, collecting, or immediate wear.

Curated by Dana Sednek, GIA trained jewelry professional and founder of RetroStarr, where each jewel is hand selected for its past lives and future attitude.