Description

A beautiful pair of Eisenberg Vintage earrings. These are clip earrings and square. They have a large center stone, faceted, with baguettes and tear drop shaped stones around the center. Eisenberg began making Rhodium plated jewelry in 1914, in Chicago. The maker was originally from Austria. These pieces have represented quality for more than 100 years. Now called "Eisenberg Ice". This pair of earrings are 1" across. Just beautiful, clear stones. This pair is unsigned.

Q. What is "rhodium" and what does it have to do with white gold jewelry?

A. Rhodium is a very precious metal that can cost ten times as much as gold or more! Rhodium is generally not considered a feasible material to make jewelry from, because it is stressed and brittle, very difficult to "work" properly for jewelry making, and it’s price is terribly volatile.

(About Rhodium price volatility: rhodium is never mined for its own self because it’s too rare for that to be feasible; rather, it’s a minor by-product from platinum mining & refining. So, when platinum is in high demand and a lot is being mined, a lot of rhodium is available, and its price can decline to about the same price as gold; but when platinum mining is down, rhodium is virtually unavailable and becomes fabulously costly (over $12,000 ounce at one point in 2011 when gold was well under $1,000 an ounce).

But rhodium is fabulous as a plating for jewelry because it is glitteringly, dazzlingly, white and mirror-like. It’s like chrome, but much whiter, and the most reflective of all metals.

Rhodium plating makes diamonds look bigger and better because it’s so bright that it glints like the diamonds. From a couple of feet away and under most lighting conditions it’s hard to see where the stones end and the metal begins. Nothing sets off diamonds like rhodium plating does. So most white gold jewelry today is rhodium plated. But the rhodium is only a plating and therefore it will wear off eventually and require re-plating.