Fine jewellery is jewellery that is made solely of precious metals and natural, high-quality gemstones. People sometimes get this confused with fashion jewellery (also known as costume jewellery), which is made using cheaper metals such as brass with a thin coating of precious metal; this is often referred to as ‘gold-plated’ jewellery. You should be able to find a hallmark stamp on your fine jewellery, highlighting the type of metal that it is made from. When shopping with Pragnell, you can be confident that you are only buying fine jewellery.

People have always seemed to be enticed by the sound of ’24-carat gold’, but this simply isn’t suitable for jewellery due to how soft it is. The most common types of gold for fine jewellery are 9ct or 9K, 14ct or 14K or 18ct or 18K gold. 12ct, 15ct and 22ct can also be seen in older jewellery.

At Pragnell, the majority of our jewellery is made from 18ct (or 18K) gold, the purest form of gold that is practical for making jewellery to last a lifetime.

When describing gold, carat (ct) and karat (K) are the same thing, a measurement indicating the proportion of pure gold out of 24 parts, so 18ct gold is 18 of 24-, or 75%-parts pure gold. The other 25% consists of other metals, usually zinc, copper or nickel, which make the alloy harder and more durable than pure gold (24ct), which is too soft for jewellery. Not to be confused with the use of carat when talking about gemstones, where carat describes a unit of weight to measure the size of a gemstone such as a diamond.

The most common ring sizes for men are between S and V, and for women, it is between L and P. View our or Ring Size Guide for help with finding the perfect ring size.

Although there are several ways to estimate someone’s ring size, it can be difficult to get it spot on. If you buy a ring that doesn’t match your partner’s finger there’s no need to worry, you can always get it resized. Some people prefer to buy the ring as a surprise in a generic size and get it resized later.

Pragnell offers free ring resizing on all rings bought in one of our showrooms or on our website. For more information on resizing rings purchased elsewhere, see our or Resizing Price Guide for details.

We usually recommend getting your jewellery cleaned professionally every six months, even if you also clean it at home. In between these regular cleans you can protect your jewellery by storing it in a clean location, avoiding high temperatures and using home cleaning remedies.

You are welcome to pop into any of our showrooms whenever you are passing and we can clean your jewellery for you. For gem-set jewellery we recommend we check over the setting for you at least once a year.

Pragnell offers a comprehensive Jewellery cleaning and polishing service. See more details in our Polishing and Cleaning Guide or Enquire for more details.