Gold plating is a thin (microns thin) layer of gold bonded electrically to the outside of a metal item.
Gold fill is up to 100 times thicker than plating, and will stand up to years and years of use without wearing through. In eyeglasses, gold fill is expressed as a percentage of total weight. For example, the most common is "1/10 12K", which means that 10% of the weight of the item is 12K gold.
Before the early 1970's, many metal frames were made of 1/10 12K white or yellow gold. In the early 1970's, U.S. President Richard Nixon took the United States off of the "gold standard". The price of gold immediately started to skyrocket, going from $32.00 an ounce to over $600 an ounce by 1980. Today (mid-2010), gold hovers around $1,200 per ounce,40x what it cost in the early 1970's!
From the mid-1970's forward, gold eyewear was mostly gold-plated, with up to 100 times less gold content than the old gold-filled pieces.
This has driven up the prices of vintage and antique gold eyewear, and much of it is now being melted down and used for other purposes. This means that much of the remaining stock of vintage and antique eyewear is disappearing.
There are still gold-filled frames made today, but they fetch $400-$1,200 and more at retail. Our price points are much lower, as we are Internet based and do not have the costs of a retail store.
Here at Clearlight Optical, we try to preserve as much vintage or antique gold-filled eyewear as we possibly can. Some of the pieces represent significant and ground-breaking fashion design.
The great Art Deco frames of the early 20th century came in a myriad of shapes and configurations, some of which are quite rare.
The highly styled "cat eyes" glasses of the 1950's and 1960's offered some of the wildest eyewear ever designed. And then there are the browline or "Gman" frames with names like "Ronsir" and "Clubmaster". All of them were available with levels of gold-fill.
All of the above styles were made with heavy gold-fill, designed to last a lifetime. And so they have!
We take these gold frames, completely disassemble them, and then inspect every surface and solder point. The ones without flaws are then hand and machine polished and reassembled with new screws, new nose pads, and new temple tips. The result is a frame that is often close to or in mint condition, ready for another lifetime of service.
We hope you like the gold-filled vintage frames we offer, and appreciate the work that goes in to them to bring you a product that is everything it can be.
Here is a link to our Gold-Filled Vintage Eyewear.
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