GLITTER IN THE FESTIVE SEASEON IN THIS FAUX ALEXANDRITE SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL VINTAGE SET BY SHERMAN!

It's been a while since we last had a faux alexandrite set of necklace and earrings by Sherman to share with our readers and customers but this time, we have a real beauty! Just click on that photo to see more pics and in large detail in our SHOP AT RUBY LANE.

Going by the construction, size of the stones Sherman used for this one, we know we have one of his much earlier sets. As tastes moved toward the finer, less chunky looks in costume jewelry, Sherman too modified his designs. So these days it's really great to find one of these older sets.

Even better, this set comes in its original box, and in that is another giveaway that this is an old Sherman: the later boxes all carried the "Sherman ... jewels of excellence" inside the boxes. Notice, that "jewels of excellence" is missing here but the inscription on that satin inlay is identifiably Sherman. So buying a set like this, in its original box, is a doubly valuable investment. Just the box alone right now would fetch $100!

Shown below is another photo of just the necklace as we subject it to different lighting so you can see the color change that occurs in faux alexandrite stones:


Isn't it brilliant! I'm always in awe of these crystals and get so excited when I find a vintage set, by any designer, with faux alexandrite stones. They're just so rare, and that makes them highly collectible.

It's intriguing to speculate what something like the set above would cost if these were real alexandrites. Quite honestly, most of us could never afford even one of those large stones in the necklace if this were the genuine gemstone. The large stones you see here are 5/8" long by 1/2" wide. That's big. Actually, because the stones in this set are larger, so is the weight of the pieces considerable. The necklace alone weighs over 60 grams!

Below is yet another view of the full set in its mauve color (ie. it changes from blue/green to lavender/mauve).


What a glorious color! By the way, the earrings are large. They run along your ear for 1 3/4" and are 3/4" wide at their widest point. Gorgeous, showy, glitzy but always beautiful Sherman! Buy it now from our SHOP AT RUBY LANE.

By the way, don't know if you watched the auction for this incredible Sherman cuff bracelet shown HERE. What a beauty. It went for over $1900 CAD. Just proves you can't really put a price on Sherman: it's worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it!

SOME FABULOUS SHERMAN SETS HAVE SURFACED LATELY ON EBAY ... BUT OH THE PRICES!

I haven't been neglecting my blog folks but I have been away for a much needed vacation. But I still put watches on Sherman auctions going on eBay and returned to find some amazing pieces had sold ... and at incredible prices. Boy, ebay used to be the best place to get Shermans for less, but not any more! Must admit, I find it strange that folks will enter the auction process and in many cases, end up paying more than they might have had they just bought directly from a Sherman vendor. But hey, it's their money they're spending. And now looking at what these pieces fetched on eBay, well put it this way: it's hard to believe we're nearly in a depression: someone has money!!

Take that gorgeous faux alexandrite set shown in the first picture. Actually I'm suprised it only went for $410 US. It's rare to find a 3-piece set like this, with necklace, bracelet and earrings. You can read more about that one by clicking on the photo ie. at least for as long as ebay will have it listed. Had I been around, I might have bid on this one, but then again, it's too similar to the gorgeous KRAMER parure I have listed in MY SHOP AT RUBY LANE and shown below:

And if I'm 100% honest, I prefer my Kramer. Besides it's a 4 piece set & a book piece. And the color changes from lavender purple to blue/green in this set are fantastic. Click the photo to see more of this one. But I digress...

The very beautiful Sherman set shown on the left sold for a whopping $690 USD! Of course there are a couple of reasons for that: its design is riveting and unique and its colors are again, one of the most popular ones: fuschia and pink. Now what would I have sold that for in my shop? Probably quite a bit less but again, being at auction, though there were only 3 bidders, they kept bumping each other up.

I think the same bidders were out to get each other on this other lovely fuschia set shown below:

This one went for $511 USD.
Note the
similarities: high demand color and unusual design. There's no doubt about it: these are Shermans for collectors ... and those who can afford them! Wish I were amongst them LOL!

Now this last one (shown below) blew me away .. not only because of the price it got but I have to admit, it's a real WOW! I'm crazy for the color... amethyst, lavender ... and those glass crystal beads are magnificent. So is what it cost the winning bidder: $811 USD!! Holy Smoke! But it's a smoking hot Sherman if ever there was one. There were 5 bidders on this one.

By the way, it might interest you to know that one person won all of these pieces! Do the maths and see what she spent on Sherman in one week. This buyer has bought from me in the past but she's never spent like she did here. Has she suddenly won the lottery? One thing's certain: she sure has amassed a fantastic and valuable collection of Sherman jewelry!

FAUX ALEXANDRITE SHERMAN DEMI DAZZLES WITH ITS COLOR CHANGES

I get really excited when I acquire Sherman jewelry in any of the popular colours like red, fuschia or purple because they are the most sought after colors. But I get even more excited when I manage to snag any vintage designer jewelry that makes use of those gorgeous faux alexandrite or what many simply call, color-changing stones ... like the fabulous brooch & earring set shown here. I'm so in love with these crystals that I find myself hunting them down more than any other kind of stone because it just fascinates me how they change from pale grey to light green to pale lavender to mauve and sometimes to deep blue depending on the light source, with the result that when you own a set like this, it's almost like having 2 sets of Sherman!

And going by how quickly I manage to sell these faux alexandrite sets, looks like I'm not the only one who loves them. That stunning Weiss necklace on the left was sold within a few days. Its change from blue/green to lavender was just magical.

The same thing happened with 2 of my most prized Sherman necklaces. If you visit this LINK which shows Shermans I've sold, take a look at photos #5 and #8. Those were both faux alexandrite necklaces and if memory serves me correctly, the same buyer bought both! (You can read my earlier post on the baguette demi at this LINK )

So seeing how popular vintage jewelry using faux alexandrite stones is, I've been on the scrounge to find as much of it as I can and I now have several wonderful pieces to share with you in the next while. But right now, the superb color-changing brooch and earring set featured at the top of this post has just been listed in MY RUBY LANE SHOP. Slip over and take a look at all the photos. Watch how many transitions in color we've been able to capture just by altering the lighting. The changes don't happen in an instant but they're pretty quick. In a darker room, the set appears mauve, but the instant we turn on a warm incandescent light, it begins its change to blue, then green. Faux alexandrite stones: truly, truly fascinating and because it's hard to come by, very, very collectible. Think about it.