Dawn rises on a warm Monday morning in 1848. James Marshall, a carpenter from New Jersey, is deep in the throes of building a sawmill for his employer in the rugged, untamed west. A believer of Manifest Destiny, Marshall looks forward to the day he will oversee this prolific sawmill, situated on a channel less than 100 miles west of Lake Tahoe. 

But destiny had another idea. 

The verdant valley is alive and thriving as Marshall steps confidently onto the bank of the river below the mill. He surveys his surroundings. Sunlight pours and pools all around him, from the wide open sky and, to his surprise, from below his feet. He stretches down to satisfy his wondering eye and holds aloft a malleable, yellow mineral destined to change not only his life and the soon-to-be state of California—but the country itself.

While his find was the definition of influential, harkening an iconic gold rush that would catalyze the rapid development of the American west, Marshall was not nearly the first to discover gold. Around 3,000 B.C., civilizations all over Europe and the Fertile Crescent found ways to use this remarkable metal for decorative objects, including jewelry. Around 1,000 B.C., small squares of gold were used as currency in China and over the next several hundred years gold became synonymous with money in many corners of the world. 

From there, gold wends its way through history, sparking progress and expanding in stature. It fueled advances in fields like dentistry, printing technology, and space exploration. And it compelled men to cross oceans and wage wars for the promise of fortune. As far as antique jewelry, gold has always held a most revered role no matter the era or function.

However, during the Art Deco era, gold got a competitor. The rise of a relatively unknown metal called platinum was spurred by a growing lust for clean, angular lines and black and white motifs. Consumers were drawn to bright white metals and stones, and jewelers were primed to deliver. Though platinum is extremely dense, super hard, and resilient to corrosion, it is not malleable by nature. But the glittering doors to platinum use burst open in 1803 when alchemists figured out how to surmount a lack of malleability. This laid the groundwork for platinum to become the star of the Art Deco era. Cartier built on that foundation, popularizing this glorious, novel metal and achieving worldwide fame in the process.

Though platinum hasn’t been prized as a precious metal for as many millennia as silver or gold, it has been here for billions of years. Meteorites containing platinum periodically slammed into Earth, creating large, concentrated deposits of the super hard, durable metal. History also describes platinum as a part of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and Incan ceremonial masks and adornments. In the 18th century Spanish conquistadors found platinum deposits while mining for gold and dubbed it “platina,” which means little silver. Yet these colonizers didn't know what they had in their hands, seeing it as a pesky metal impeding the more profitable gold mining. 

Though not as hard as platinum, silver has its own lustrous history. Silver, the metal most reminiscent of the moon, was known to humans as far back as 5,000 B.C. But it really picked up steam a few thousand years later when it redefined ancient trade, allowing a monetary system to flourish and banishing bartering to the annals of history. Silver has built industries and empires, specifically solidifying Spain’s reign in South America. The conquistados even named a country after it: Argentina is derived from the Latin word for “silvery.” Silver has had a hand in art, investment, medicine, and even early photography when people found that silver reacts to light by turning black. This made it possible to imprint an instance of light on an awaiting photographic plate.

And of course, it has a harrowed role in the history of jewelry too. Today, silver’s reputation might not suggest that it would appear in fine jewelry but in earlier eras silver was known as a diamond’s best friend since it was thought to amplify the stone’s shine. In the 17th and 18th centuries, an abundance of silver from South America and diamonds from India were a match made just about everywhere as everyone wanted that bright white metal as a perfect complement to the colorless sparkle of a diamond. 

Silver was popular during the Georgian and Victorian eras, especially as rudimentary die striking techniques emerged. Silver really gained the spotlight during the Arts and Crafts period since artisans valued design over the inherent worth of materials. Some of the most absolutely showstopping antique jewels floating around today retain their original settings, many of which are silver collet or other silver topped settings. 
Lustrous gold, dense platinum, and gleaming silver. These comprise the metal triumvirate in the world of antique and vintage jewelry. Their histories are fascinating and extensive, shaping not only the beautiful adornments that continue to take our breath away but industry, economic, culture, and, in many cases, society itself.