Portfolio
Heirloom Restoration — 1920s Brooch
A centenary milgrain brooch returned to wearable condition while preserving its original character.
This Art Deco platinum brooch — originally crafted around 1924 — arrived with three missing old-cut diamonds, a bent clasp pin, and decades of accumulated patina obscuring its milgrain border. The client's goal was preservation first: restore wearability without erasing the evidence of a century of use.
The Aurelia studio sourced three period-correct old-cuts from an estate lot to match the original cutting style, then re-tipped each remaining stone, replaced the clasp mechanism with a hand-fabricated replica of the original, and cleaned the piece by hand. The result retains its aged platinum tone and worn gold-fill accents — it looks like itself, only functional again.
