When I first started buying Sherman jewellery (as opposed to collecting it, and they’re different things) all the designs I saw were new to me and they all looked wonderful. It was like being set hungrily in front of a buffet and loading up your plate, only to get back to your table and find that you really didn’t want three different types of pasta salad.

Over time, a collector hones his or her eye, and begins to winnow out pieces that seem too commonly available, or just don’t appeal to the focus of the collection, whether that’s based on a particular time period, colour or style. That’s when the indiscriminate buying stops and the active collecting begins. 

And certain pieces, once discovered but not yet owned, become “grail” items – must haves to round out the collection. And layered on all that is the hope that you can find your heart’s desire inexpensively. Because collectors are, generally, cheap. We don’t often see something and say, “I’ll have that at any cost!” No, we want to find that undiscovered gem the seller isn’t aware they have, to snipe the grail piece for a song on Ebay, or find it languishing on an undiscovered web site.

When I first began buying Sherman (my collecting phase came somewhat later), it was plentiful and prices were low, even for the most fabulous pieces. That was over 10 years ago. Since then, I have bought and sold a lot, and while I will still get a piece if it’s inexpensive enough and pretty, I usually try to focus on my particular Sherman loves. And there’s the problem. As your collection grows, you cease being happy with the run of the mill and want the rare, the unusual and (in my case) the LARGE. And it’s the same path taken by a lot of other collectors. So there you are, all competing for the same scarce pieces. Which has the unfortunate effect of pushing prices up past the point of all reason.

So for the most part, I have stopped buying Sherman. I find it just too expensive for what it is, much as I still admire most of it. Friends have talked about where to turn our collecting eye now (we never really say, ‘We’re done collecting anything!’).

More and more lately, I’ve looked at what I have and been sorely tempted to just get rid of it all and start fresh with something else. Problem is that anything else that calls to me has already been collected to death – so prices for the really good and unusual pieces are already quite healthy.

Ironic that even this economic downturn has not substantially hurt prices for the top pieces. Maybe I should have parked my money in Sherman rigid cuff bracelets.

I’d be interested to hear from other collectors as to where they went when they reached the pinnacle of their particular collection.