What does one do with antique jewelry if it can’t be safely or stylishly worn? My friend Ellen inherited a beautiful collection of antique jewelry, including several dozen brooches and lapel pins. She created an elegant method of displaying them. She built the top of her coffee table into a honeycomb of cubes, each one a frame large enough to display three or four carefully matched pins. Then she lined each frame with a background material—sand in some cases, distressed velvet or tiny pebbles in others. Finally she laid each pin down in its cube and made a hinged glass lid for the whole table. Together, the antique jewelry and the display itself make an excellent conversation piece.

By Erin Sweeney

for Antiques.com