The woman behind the jewels is Rebecca Selva: part historian, part curator. Every time I enter the store, I learn something new from Rebecca. Whether that be jewelry terminology: “azure is a cut out for the stone to allow sunlight” or once the symbolism in Dutch still life paintings— she is a fountain of knowledge.

Today, Rebecca informs me she is “a jewelry detective” and brings out a suite of diamond starfish clips. She tells me what she knows: “they are 1930s, they are French, they are unsigned.”

But Rebecca has a hunch— she believes they are by a famous French maker and is scouring all her sources for information on them. If she can officially attribute them, they go up in value. She has done it before too. She tells me “I discovered two Boivin pieces.”

Aside from her detective work, Rebecca is a red-carpet whisperer. Securing placements at the Oscars each year on the likes of Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron. Notably this year she encouraged Ke Huy Quan to wear a Victorian pansy brooch and diamond stick-pin combo for his best supporting actor win.

“I want to demystify antique,” she says. “It isn’t old-it’s beautiful. Great jewelry is timeless.  And fun.”