About Our Pieces

What these are

Every piece on this site is a contemporary work in gold, made in the styles of the ancient Silk Road — the Buddhist art of Gandhāra and the Kushan lands, the animal style of the steppe, Sasanian Iran, and the Hellenistic East. The forms, techniques and imagery are old. The pieces are new.

What these are not

  • Not antiques. Nothing here is old, and we make no claim about age anywhere on this site. Where our notes refer to Gandhāra, the Kushans, the steppe or the Hellenistic world, they are describing the tradition a piece works in, not the date it was made.
  • Not a claim about inscriptions or figures. Inscriptions, emblems and figures are part of the design. We have not had inscriptions read, and we do not claim that a figure represents a particular person or that a piece belonged to anyone.
  • Not an investment. Buy a piece because you want to wear it or look at it, not as a way of holding gold.

Gold content

Every piece has been tested by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and the reading is printed on its page: the percentage of gold and the equivalent karat, to one decimal place. The balance is silver with a little copper. XRF reads the surface of the metal rather than its core; it is the standard non-destructive test in the trade, but it is not a fire assay. Where a piece is only partly gold — the two necklaces, for instance — we say which part was tested.

Stones

Stones are described by colour and cut only: red cabochon, banded black-and-white, purple faceted beads. We have not had them identified by a gemmological laboratory, and we do not use the name of a gemstone we cannot stand behind.

Weights and measurements

Weights are given in grams and, for rings and set pieces, include the stones. Dimensions are height by width, in centimetres and inches. Ring sizes are US sizes; any competent jeweller can adjust a plain band, though we would not advise resizing the filigree ring.

Condition and photographs

Everything is sold in new condition. Repoussé plaques are raised from thin sheet gold, and their rippled surfaces and irregular edges are a feature of the technique rather than damage. Where a piece has anything worth mentioning beyond that — a hole, a patch of uneven colour — we say so in its entry.

Photographs on this site are of the actual piece you will receive, taken on a black ground under even light. We hold further photographs of every piece, including the reverse and a scale reference, and will send them on request.

Our undertaking

If a piece arrives and is not as described on this site, in any respect, send it back and we will refund the purchase price and the shipping both ways. That applies with no time limit and without argument. Everything else — including simply changing your mind — is covered by the fourteen-day return period set out under Shipping & Returns.

Last updated 30 September 2026. Cambria Gallery, a California company. Questions: info@cambriagallery.com.