Diamond Earrings Fred Leighton

For years, countless style-setters around the world — Hollywood starlets among them — have turned to Madison Avenue mainstay Fred Leighton for its exceptional selection of antique and vintage baubles.

Wrapped around its elegant corner of 66th and Madison Avenue in New York, Leighton is a brilliantly glittering star in the jewelry firmament. Since the boutique moved uptown in 1984, Leighton has become known for bringing antique and 20th-century jewels to a discerning international clientele and, perhaps most famously, for contributing to the red carpet looks of countless starlets (including Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Amy Adams and Claire Danes, to name but a few). Simply put, over the past few decades, Leighton has helped move antique jewelry out of its dusty, insular ivory tower and into the wider world of fast-moving modern style.

The story of Fred Leighton as we know it began in the 1970s, when Murray Mondschein (now something of a legend in the jewelry industry) took over a Greenwich Village clothing shop called Fred Leighton (after its original owner) and started selling Mexican wedding dresses, hand-crafted accessories and ethnic jewelry. When someone gave him some antique jewelry to sell, he added that to the mix.

A defining moment came in the mid-1990s: “It started with an unexpected call from Miuccia Prada,” relays Greg Kwiat, the jeweler’s CEO. “She had designed a dress for Nicole Kidman to wear to the Oscars, and she had something very specific in mind for the jewelry that should go with it.” Fred Leighton lent a vintage choker of Australian opals (a reference to Kidman’s nationality) that Prada, a client and collector, had seen in the shop. The timing was perfect, as “vintage” in general — clothes, accessories, jewelry, furniture — was being embraced for its charm, individuality and powers of personal expression. “Estate jewelry pushed against the sameness of modern branded culture,” explains Kwiat.

By the mid-2000s Mondschein (who by then had legally changed his name to Fred Leighton) had retired and an unsettled period of interim ownership followed. In 2009, the Kwiats, world-leading diamond traders and jewelers, bought the business, and Greg Kwiat became CEO. Today, the Madison Avenue boutique presents an air of streamlined serenity: taupe carpet warmed by original Art Deco showcases; furniture in rich, glossy Macassar wood; wrought-iron balustrades that recall a luxurious 1930s ocean liner. The jewelry, set out simply but impeccably, covers a 200-year span of styles and eras, from the candlelit romance of Georgian diamond chandelier earrings, through the pomp and grandeur of Victorian jewels, to the modernism of Art Deco masterpieces and seminal 1960s designs by the likes of Van Cleef & Arpels and David Webb.

Leighton’s particular strengths lie in Victorian pieces from the 1800s and Art Deco pieces. She likes the eclecticism and eccentricity of 19th-century jewelry, embodied, for example, by an enameled serpent bangle, with its gem-encrusted head, a favorite motif of Queen Victoria, or a pair of dramatic gold Egyptian-inspired earrings with scarab motifs that tell of the vogue for archaeological revival jewels during the period.

Today, the antique and 20th-century offerings are joined by a contemporary Fred Leighton-branded collection, whose rings, necklaces and other accessories are either inspired by historical precedents or actually incorporate antique elements, such as a pair of earrings composed of vintage diamond wings with appended enamels and fringes that provide an of-the-moment edge.

Find Fred Leighton jewelry on 1stDibs today.

Antique diamond rings, diamond tiaras and dazzling vintage diamond earrings are on the wish lists of every lover of fine jewelry. And diamonds and diamond jewelry are primarily associated with storybook engagements and red-carpet grand entrances — indeed, this ultra-cherished gemstone has a dramatic history on its hands.

From “A Diamond Is Forever” to “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” pop culture has ingrained in our minds that diamonds are the most desired, the most lasting and the most valuable gemstone. But what makes the diamond so special? Each stone — whether it’s rubies, sapphires or another stone — is unique and important in its own right. April babies might claim diamonds for themselves, but just about everyone wants this kind of sparkle in their lives!

There are several factors that set diamonds apart from other stones, and these points are important to our gem education.

Diamonds are minerals. They are made up of almost entirely of carbon (carbon comprises 99.95 percent; the remainder consists of various trace elements). Diamonds are the hardest gemstones, ranking number 10 on the Mohs Hardness Scale. Even its name, diamond, is rooted in the Greek adamas, or unconquerable. The only object that can scratch a diamond is another diamond. Diamonds are formed deep within the earth at very high temperatures (1,652–2,372 degrees Fahrenheit at depths between 90 and 120 miles beneath the earth’s surface) and are carried up by volcanic activity. Diamonds are quite rare, according to the Gemological Institute of America, and only 30 percent of all the diamonds mined in the world are gem quality.

In the 1950s, the Gemological Institute of America developed the 4Cs grading system to classify diamonds: clarity, color, cut and carat weight. Not all diamonds are created equal (there are diamonds, and then there are diamonds). The value of the diamond depends on the clarity (flawless diamonds are very rare but a diamond's value decreases if there are many blemishes or inclusions), color (the less color the higher the grade), cut (how the diamond’s facets catch the light, certain cuts of diamonds show off the stone better than others) and carat weight (the bigger, the better).

When you start shopping for a diamond engagement ring, always prioritize the cut, which plays the largest role in the diamond's beauty (taking the time to clean your diamond ring at least every six months or so plays a role in maintaining said beauty). And on 1stDibs, a range of buying guides can be found for those in the market for antique engagement rings, vintage engagement rings or Art Deco engagement rings. 

Shop antique and vintage diamond rings, diamond necklaces and other extraordinary diamond jewelry on 1stDibs.  

In the United States, ear piercing didn’t really become popular until the 1950s and ‘60s, but our desire for a dazzling pair of vintage earrings has deeper roots than that. In fact, wearing earrings actually goes back thousands of years, and you can find many tangible connections between now and then in how we continue to talk about these treasured accessories.

Women wore ornamental earrings — studs and hoops at the very least — in Ancient Egypt, which is home to mines that are among the earliest sources of emeralds in the world. Emerald earrings are highly prized today, and their quality lies in their rich, saturated color. The highest-quality emeralds are green or bluish-green. Earrings worn by the affluent in early Roman civilizations were set with precious stones such as diamonds and pearls, and a clean-looking pop of pearl on the front of the lobe is as timeless as ever. Hoop earrings are imbued with symbolism and cultural significance for many, and on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Ancient Near Eastern Art Gallery is a pair of simple gold hoops from Mesopotamia dating to between 2600 and 2500 B.C.

Today, ear piercing is very popular all over the world, and, as a result, it is difficult to overstate how much everyone pines for a good pair of earrings — modernist drop earrings, glamorous Victorian hoops, geometrically complex chandelier earrings, you name it. Sure, jewelry trends and the fashion darlings of social media come and go, but earrings have a staying power that seems impenetrable: The still-strong love affair between British royals and Cartier earrings is more than a century old, glossy 1970s hoops from legacy houses such as Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels remain the statement makers they’ve always been and although people have been stacking earrings for many moons, the allure of an expertly mismatched stack of charms and studs still feels fresh and new.

While there is no shortage of modern earring designs to choose from, the classics, like coral earrings, Art Deco–style earrings and diamond drop earrings are still heavy hitters. On 1stDibs, find a wide range of antique, new and vintage earrings today.