The characteristics of Art Deco jewelry

Art Deco Jewelry is typically in white metal like Platinum or White Gold. It started with hand made platinum until WWI when they banned the use of platinum in jewelry so jewelers scrambled find an alternative that was better than silver and thus, white gold was born. White gold is an oxy-moron because gold is yellow so they mix in other alloys to make gold(yellow) to look white… back to Art Deco…

Art Deco has its distinct designs using thin, hand carved/bladed platinum known as filigree. Bezels and edges are adorned with milgrain and delicate details usually with hard lines sometimes abstract and other times symmetrical. I feel the term “Cocktail Ring” was invented in the Art Deco era. This site has some great examples of fine art deco jewelry.