Dublin-based Carus Jewellery was established in 2012 by John and Elaine Hoyne, industry veterans with more than 25 years of experience in antique and vintage jewelry. This wealth of knowledge is evident in every aspect of their business, from Carus Jewellery’s carefully curated selection to its detailed online listings and informative educational blog posts.
Carus Jewellery: precious antique treasures.
I love when a jewelry store has a clear aesthetic vision; a consistent feeling to their inventory that makes it clear that they’re all carefully selected with the same goals in mind.
Carus Jewellery excels at this. You could wear any two random pieces from their inventory at the same time and they’d compliment each other perfectly.
That’s not to say their selection isn’t diverse: Carus Jewellery’s offerings encompass all of the eras, styles, and gemstones you’d expect from a fine antique jewelry store. But you can tell every single piece was chosen by the same guiding hand. It’s incredibly satisfying to behold and makes their shop’s inventory both dependable and delightful.
Let’s take a closer look at some of Carus Jewellery’s treasures, shall we? I bet you’ll be able to see what I mean.
This petite and perfect Georgian era beauty is an acrostic: the first letters of each stone use spell out the word “DEAREST.” You can see there’s a space in the back of the ring that would have offered a compartment for a sentimental treasure like a beloved’s hair, but it is now empty.
I LOVE acrostic jewelry and I know many of you do too. I’m betting this ring will be snapped up quickly.
I enjoy browsing every section of Carus Jewellery’s website, but their ring selection is a little bit extra special, with a particular abundance of the of kind sleek, low-profile ring that is so appealing as an easily wearable everyday treasure.
This pearl and garnet ring is a perfect example: its exquisite side detailing and luscious colors are pure luxury, but its silhouette is simple enough that it could come with you almost anywhere in your daily life. It’s Victorian era and just gorgeous.
Here’s a very special Victorian era set! These remarkable matching pieces feature three hand-painted cameos showing a couple together on the pendant and a male and female figure on their own in the earrings, all in the dreamiest pastel colors.
I’m fascinated by the playful scene on the pendant; the female figure is blindfolded and her gentleman is leading her somewhere. Do any of you recognize a particular myth or story being referenced here?
Each cameo is set with a gold-inlaid tortoise shell surround with a tortoise shell bail on the pendant.
How about some more beautiful gold pendants? These three all have such a romantic, whimsical vibe, with their flowing lines and sprinkles of pearls. Each one is distinctive, but they share the same delicate elegance.
This pretty trio of pendants are all from the same time period, the elegant Edwardian era.
Just look at this crop of utterly lovely golden beauties! Two lockets and one pendant.
Each piece offered at Carus Jewellery must pass a series of checks, starting with evaluation of design and the quality and condition of the piece. Next, the age of and materials used in the piece are carefully verified. Only after all that will the piece be issued a certificate of authenticity and offered for sale.
Each piece is carefully, intentionally chosen and that care shines through the entire collection.
These two silver brooches caught my eye right away. They look like they’re meant to belong to the same collector, even though they’re from different eras.
The brooch on the left with the ethereal lady is Art Nouveau while the floral brooch on the right is slightly older, from the Victorian era. Both are lovely pieces that you could wear in an infinite number of ways.
The fact that they’re silver means they’re more affordable, despite their exquisite quality.
Could this necklace be any more perfectly gorgeous? It’s like romance given form.
This lovely thing is Edwardian era and features foliate seed pearl designs in gold. The central element leads to a chain, which means that the necklace would drape sinuously across the collarbones of anyone who was lucky enough to wear it. Perfection!
If I show you every single ring I like at Carus Jewellery this post will be too long for anyone to read, so here’s a sneak peek of the beauties we didn’t have a chance to focus on.
By the way, “Carus” means precious in Latin. It’s a perfect name for this little treasure chest of a store
If you liked the pretties in today’s post, I urge you to check out the rest of the gorgeous pieces available on Carus Jewellery’s website and Instagram.
Their curated collections are a great place to start browsing: Carus Editor’s Picks and The Perfect Gift.
Photos by Carus Jewellery. This sponsored post is brought to you by Carus Jewellery.
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i adore that georgian acrostic ring. and there is a starburst design pendant calling to me amongst these lovelies.
i am curious also to read what others say about the painted victorian set’s centrepiece…it was pretty common for the well-born of the era depicted (and indeed, later too) to play games that we think of as children’s games. “sardines”, hide-and-seek, blindman’s buff, variants of something we call “pin the tail on the donkey”, etc, were all played as parlour games alongside verbal games and charades. as the lady is blindfolded here, they could be playing blindman’s buff out of doors. there is another possibility: there were games of identification by scent of the flowers in a garden, or ones where the blindfolded person had to navigate through the garden paths using the directions of a ‘guide’ who would direct him/her to “turn right at the roses”, etc…hilarity ensued at the inevitable mis-steps, and getting a frock caught in thorns might be an opportunity for one’s guide to tenderly assist with freeing the person, perhaps stealing a kiss too… another possibility is that the scene depicts something from fiction where a gentleman leads a blindfolded lady to see something special as a surprise: a classical view, a famous garden, her new house…
the edwardian seed pearl necklace is a pretty thing, too. they do indeed have a well-curated assemblage of jewels; as you say, one could wear any several pieces together in harmony.
The acrostic and the starburst are two of my very favorites too! They have the same slightly mysterious vibe that I really love.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the Victorian painted scene! Some sort of game is the first thing I thought of too and I bet there’s a decent chance that’s what it is, especially because of what you said about this kind of parlor game being popular during that era. It fits well with the piece’s vibe of an idyllic, romantic fantasy. Whatever it is meant to be, it’s absolutely lovely to behold and just as delightful to wonder about.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting! I always get excited when I see a comment from you – it makes me feel like a friend has stopped by to see me.
xoxo,
Becky