goettgen Journal

The following is (unfortunately) a true story from the life of a jewellery representative. It is a must to tell you what happened to me the other day. The prospective jewellery buyer needs to be warned. The following is the argument against our garnet jewellery I was confronted with lately:

"Oh, now I see, your garnet jewellery is made of silver! We can’t sell that. The jewellery we offer is made of red brass gold (gold!). That’s what our customers want, something that is noble and of high quality like red brass gold..."

Stay calm, I thougt, and I tried to explain carefully to the shop owner that red brass is no genuine alloy, and that the name red brass GOLD was slightly misleading. The lady angrily replied that red brass had 85% gold content and that the rest was copper and such. Hereupon, I said nothing more – thought of a retort, but said goodbye and left the shop. Read all about red brass in the following chapter...

Differing from silver or gold, red brass is a base alloy which is often used for coins. The good old German Pfennig was, for example, red brass alloyed.

However, most people know red brass in connection with old garnet jewellery, which mostly was manufactured from this material. Red brass (German: “Tombak”) consists more than 80% of copper, the rest is zinc. There are also some alloy variations as, for example, gold red brass – that is what the shop owner may have meant. However, gold red brass does have any gold content (and certainly not a content of 85%). With gold red brass, only the copper portion is higher.

Unfortunately, I do not know where the lady bought the jewellery. But one thing is clear: the price of the “red brass gold” garnet jewellery was indeed set as if the material had an 85% gold portion. I do not know how many unsuspecting customers have already bought jewellery at an extortionate price in this shop. I can only say that these pieces were not even original old pieces, which could more or less have justified the price. These pieces were new - i.e. replicas.

We manufacture our garnet jewellery according to old models and drafts from books etc. However, we manufacture in silver – and this for the following reasons:

Silver is a precious metal, and nowadays much more affordable as in former times. This is due to the fact that nowadays more silver is produced – there is simply more available. In my opinion, there is not a single reason why one should manufacture using red brass today, on the contrary: Red brass is a base alloy and worn on the skin may cause allergies. In addition, manufacturing from this material is at least as complex as manufacturing from silver. I think that if one wants to have a nice piece of jewellery, it does not necessarily need to consist of “shop-soiled” materials, just as used to be the case in former times. Due to our special antique finish, silver gives a very authentic look. Many of our customers think the colour is even more beautiful.

However, everything is a matter of taste – BUT: If it is red brass, then have a look at the price and take care of what the shop owner tells you! If he/she tries to tell you that it is an antique gold alloy, you should go to another dealer.

Yours,
Martin Wagner