Please be careful with Tiffany & Co. 'Authenticators' for Pre Loved Tiffany Jewellery

Feeling 😞. We just had someone email us hoping for help to authenticate a piece that a well known reseller was selling (though they are not Tiffany experts they have several stores throughout Australia but mostly deal with digital goods).  Regarding this ring, the photos were so blurry that I had a couple concerns immediately regarding design consistency. 

I rang up and asked a couple questions regarding the ring. They assured me that an ‘independent jeweller’ had assessed the ring as a Tiffany piece and that they had the paperwork from the jeweller as proof to authenticity. I explained, any generic jeweller wouldn’t be able to authenticate a Tiffany & Co. piece. Can you confirm a couple simple things for me such as, is there a ‘Tiffany & Co.’ hallmark and is the metal content ‘PT 950’ hallmarked? Pretty standard information. There response was NO, there is no ‘Tiffany & Co.’ hallmark. They said only ‘PLAT’.

I explained that’s a huge red flag and that on top of the design inconsistencies I do not believe that’s a Tiffany Ring. They repeated they had the paperwork from the Jeweller stating it was genuine. I asked whether they have the Tiffany paperwork? They replied No.

I said, please don’t sell the ring as a Tiffany piece, it’s not a Tiffany piece. A generic jeweller cannot authenticate Tiffany. I’ve asked them to please take down the ring as it worries me hugely but at this stage they still have it up. This makes me sad and I’m hopeful no one is duped by this item. 

I've noticed a trend with people trusting advice from people who claim to be professional authenticators or something similar.  I've also seen the response of some of these authenticators, where they will wholeheartedly 100% approve or disprove an item as authentic without a huge amount of information.  I've seen one of these authenticators attempt to authenticate a Tiffany Diamond Ring on a Facebook Group to which her response was so incorrect I had to Private Message the person enquiring to provide more accurate information.

Authenticating a pre-loved Tiffany & Co. piece is not something that can be simply done with a couple images.  There is cross referencing, there is design knowledge, there is market knowledge and common sense.  There are little clues that that even we keep to ourselves so that counterfeiters can't take advantage of this.

Over the years of selling pre-loved Tiffany & Co. high end pieces we have accumulated knowledge dealing with so many pieces, however even we ourselves always err on the side of caution.

It makes me so sad that a piece that doesn't even contain a Tiffany & Co. hallmark could possibly be authenticated on paper by someone as a Tiffany & Co. piece.  That to me is very upsetting and extremely careless. 

Having said all this, it is definitely possible to do proper due diligence when buying pre-loved. There are also checks you can do post purchase for your own re assurances as to authenticity.  There is a beautiful sustainable and cost effective world of stunning pre-love Tiffany pieces that are authentic.  We adore this world. 

We are extremely proud that in over 5 years of selling hundreds of high end Tiffany pieces to date we have consistently provided authentic, genuine high end pre-loved Tiffany jewellery.

I'm hopeful this company will take down this listing, however their last communication to me was how much it was worth and they were keeping the ad up.

Regardless, I'm sorry this was a fairly negative post, and I'm sorry that I don't even had a picture to share.  I didn't want to have any of our beautiful pieces associated with this post.

Catherine Trenton Jewellery

"We are an established boutique organisation specialising in pre-loved diamond designer jewellery from Tiffany & Co. and other luxury brands.

As experts in this niche trade we work hard to provide a safe and simple environment for buying and selling pre-loved fine diamond jewellery online.

In January 2018 we also introducing our own line of fine jewellery.

Whether you are buying pre-loved, new or selling a piece of fine diamond designer jewellery, we put customer service first and aim to provide you with the best outcome possible."