Returns

Why one-of-one changes the question

A shop selling new goods holds a shelf of identical items. A return costs it the shipping and a little handling, and the piece goes back on that shelf. None of that is true here. These are estate and artisan pieces bought one at a time — a single Navajo cuff, a single Taxco ring — and when one sells it is gone from the catalogue for good. There is no second one to put back.

That makes a returns window an odd promise to make. It would mean holding a piece out of the hands of the next person who wants it, on the chance the first person changes their mind — and vintage silver does not sit idle politely. It gets worn, resized, scratched, and cleaned with the wrong thing. A returned piece is rarely the piece that was sent.

So rather than build a policy that absorbs uncertainty after the fact, the effort goes in before it. That is the trade this shop is making, and it is worth being explicit about: you give up the right to change your mind, and in exchange you get told everything we know before you decide.

What we do instead

Most jewelry gets returned because something was not obvious from the listing. Each of these exists to remove one of those reasons, and all of it is on the page before you buy:

• Measurements taken by hand, with callipers. Ring size, band width, face height, cuff opening and wrist fit — measured off the piece itself rather than copied from a supplier sheet, because there is no supplier sheet.
• A "Will it Fit?" panel on pieces where fit is the question, so you can check a cuff against your own wrist before buying rather than after.
• The actual weight in grams of the piece — the difference between a substantial cuff and a light one is something photographs are very bad at conveying.
• The hallmarks photographed close up and cross-referenced in our hallmark index, so the mark you are buying on is one you can read yourself.
• Up to twenty photographs per piece, including the wear, the marks and the flaws. We photograph what is there rather than what flatters.
• Silence where we are not sure. If a measurement has not been taken or a maker cannot be confirmed, the page leaves that line out rather than printing an estimate. A guess dressed as a fact is how somebody ends up with a ring that does not fit.

If something is wrong

A no-returns policy is not a licence to misdescribe things. If a piece arrives damaged in transit, or it is materially not what the listing said it was — the wrong metal, the wrong size, a mark that is not the mark described, damage that was not disclosed — that is not a change of mind and it is not your problem to absorb.

Tell us within a reasonable time of it arriving, with photographs of what you received, and we will make it right. Nothing on this page is intended to sign away a right you have by law.

If you bought through Etsy

A good number of these pieces sell through our Etsy shop as well as here. An order placed on Etsy is governed by Etsy's own policies and its buyer protection programme, not by this page — so if that is where you bought, start there. This policy applies to orders placed directly with us.

Ask before you buy

This is the part that matters most, and it is free. If you are unsure about size, fit, weight, condition, a mark, or how a stone has aged, ask — we have the piece in hand and can measure it again, photograph a detail, or tell you honestly that it is probably not right for you.