Jewelers Row, Chicago · Since 1975
High jewelry.
The top of what we make: important stones, one-off pieces, and work that begins with a gem on a tray rather than a case to choose from. Fifty years on Wabash buys the thing money cannot — being shown the stone first, loose, before anyone talks about a setting. Nothing here carries a price on the screen. Tell us which piece you are looking at and we will answer you personally.
The hub
Ten kinds of piece. Ask about any of them.
This is the work at the top of what we do. Almost none of it is sitting in a case waiting — it is made once, around stones we have found or you have brought us. Pick the one closest to what you have in mind and ask; you will hear back from the shop with what we currently hold and what it would take to build it.
Important single stones
Sometimes the stone is the piece and the metal is only there to hold it. We buy loose, we show you loose, and the setting is drawn afterwards.
Ask to see it out of the mount, in daylight, before anything is decided.
Statement necklaces
The piece an entire evening is built around. A riviera, a bib, or one commanding stone carried on a line of smaller ones.
These take months, not weeks. Start the conversation well before the date.
Cocktail rings
One stone, scaled up past the point of subtlety, on a shank cut down to whatever it takes to carry it.
Above a certain size the stone chooses the setting. We start from the stone.
Parures — matching suites
A necklace, earrings and a bracelet cut from the same parcel of stones so they agree with each other under any light. The hardest thing a shop can be asked for.
Built one piece at a time, with the parcel held back for the rest.
Chandelier earrings
Built in tiers so the whole pair moves, and balanced so a long earring still sits light on the ear after four hours.
Matching two important stones takes longer than finding one. Always.
Cuffs & important bangles
Sculptural gold carrying a centre stone, or a wide worked band that is the whole piece on its own. Goldsmithing you wear.
Worth handling before you decide. Weight is most of the impression.
Brooches & clips
The form the great houses used for their best stones, because a brooch has no size to fit and no ear to weigh down. Worn on a lapel, a strap or a bag.
Many are made to come apart and be worn as a pendant as well. Ask.
Convertible pieces
A necklace that shortens into a choker, a brooch that unclips into two, a pendant that lifts off and becomes a ring. High jewelry has always been built to do more than one job.
Say at the design stage what else you want it to be. Afterwards is harder.
Estate & signed pieces
Period high jewelry that came through the shop and was kept, including signed work when we can get it. Hand engraving and old cuts nobody produces now.
We tell you what is signed, what is attributed and what is simply of the period.
Full commissions
A piece that exists once, from the stone up. You choose the gem, we draw around it, and nothing is cut, cast or set until the drawing is right. Most of what is on this page began as a commission, which is the honest way to say that this is the work the shop is actually for.
Nothing is quoted until the design is settled, and nothing is made until the quote is.
Before you enquire
Two things worth knowing first.
How big a stone really looks, and how a piece actually gets made. The two things people most want explained before they ask for anything.
What a carat actually looks like
Carat is weight, not size, and the two come apart fast as stones get bigger. Pick a shape, type a weight, and this gives you the spread that weight covers on a hand.
An approximation for a well-proportioned stone. A deep-cut stone of the same weight looks smaller from above and a shallow one looks bigger, which is exactly why cut is worth more attention than the carat figure. Two stones of identical weight can differ by more than a millimetre. Come and look at both.
How one gets made
Eight stages, most of them in this building. Tap one to see what happens and what you are asked to decide.
The stone. We put stones on a tray and you look at them loose, in daylight, before anyone draws anything. Nothing else in the process matters as much as this.
After you own it
What comes with it, and what comes after.
A piece at this level is not finished when it leaves the counter. The bench that made it is the bench that keeps it, for as long as you have it.
Independent certification
Important stones go out to a laboratory and come back with a report written by someone with nothing to gain from the sale.
GIAAppraisal for insurance
A written valuation and photographs for your insurer, updated when you ask, because replacement values move.
Visit the shopAnnual check & clean
Prongs, clasps and settings looked at under the loupe once a year, and a proper clean while you wait. Free, for as long as you own it.
Visit the shopRestoration
Period pieces brought back without being modernised — worn engraving recut, old settings rebuilt the way they were made.
Repairs & serviceCome and see it in daylight
Suite B1, one floor down from Wabash.
Nothing on this page can be judged from a screen. Tell us what you are after and we will have the stones out on a tray and the pieces out of the safe before you arrive.
- Address
- 1 N Wabash Ave, Suite B1
Chicago, IL 60602 - Phone
- (312) 782-8633
Hours
- Monday10:00 – 17:00
- Tuesday10:00 – 17:00
- Wednesday10:00 – 17:00
- Thursday10:00 – 17:00
- Friday10:00 – 17:00
- Saturday11:00 – 16:00
- SundayClosed