Gold backed silver?

unfamiliar with terminology

I do antique reproductions and I always use gold backed silver for
them, and I have no complains.

What is gold backed silver?

Cindy
Newberg Jewelry Studio & Supply

What is gold backed silver? 

The term is a bit imprecise. Most of the antique jewellery
constructed from 3 distinct units. Upper bezel or cluster, lower
bezel ( some called it under-bezel ), and gallery. Gallery connects
the two bezels. Upper bezel and gallery are made in silver, while
the lower bezel is made in gold. That is known as gold backed silver.

Leonid Surpin

Hi Cindy,

Maybe I missed what you are responding to, but wouldn’t ‘gold backed
silver’ be Bi-Metal. A sheet of 22k gold fused to a sheet of
Sterling Silver. 1/8 gold to silver.

Mariel
Asgard Exquisite Jewelry

Mariel

Maybe I missed what you are responding to, but wouldn't 'gold
backed silver' be Bi-Metal. A sheet of 22k gold fused to a sheet of
Sterling Silver. 1/8 gold to silver. 

The Bi-metal you’re talking about, a fairly modern product (at least,
the 22K/sterling version, though more ordinary “gold fill” has been
around a long time), is generally a fairly thick layer of silver with
a thinner layer of gold, with the gold usually being intended as the
top surface. The original post was referring to antique
reproductions, or actual antique jewelry pieces. In those, which
were generally made before the introduction of white golds, and often
before the use, or at least widespread use, of platinum, for diamond
settings, still were made with the awareness that white metal looked
better behind diamonds. The solution traditionally used was to
solder (not fuse, as the modern bimetal products do) a layer of
silver to top the otherwise gold jewelry item. That silver was then
the metal into which the diamonds were set, just as a white gold or
platinum sheet might today be used to set diamonds in an otherwise
yellow gold piece. The antiques by now, of course, usually show
tarnish and discoloration on the silver, making them easy to identify
for what they are made of. Some may have been antiqued (blackened
silver) even when they were made. The practice of using silver to set
diamonds pretty much stopped, at least in most “western” jewelry
traditions once jewelers became more familiar with and able to use
platinum, or around the time of the first world war, the newly
introduced white gold alloys.

Peter