by Rhea Wood

Created on: January 04, 2009   Last Updated: February 16, 2009

Jewelry boxes are a beautiful, simple way to store and protect your jewelry and precious stones. The best jewelry boxes will protect gemstones from scratches, keep fine necklaces from tangling, keep silver from tarnishing, and have a host of other protective qualities. Not only are they useful, however, they can also be beautiful to look at, adding a sense of finery and femininity to any space.

My favorite jewelry boxes are wooden on the outside, to allow ambient humidity to reach the jewelry inside. This is important if you plan to store pearls within; pearls store best in an environment that is not too dry, as dryness can rob pearls of their luster and shine, and even crack them. Wood also lasts a long time, is easy to care for and keep clean, and looks very elegant, hinting at the treasures stored within.

The best interior for a jewelry box, as detailed here, is a soft, velvety fabric. Every time you place your jewelry in the box, the soft fabric will polish the metals and gemstones until they are gleaming, and will mean you don't have to spend so much time cleaning and polishing your jewelry yourself. Some jewelry boxes even come lined with a special fabric that helps keep silver from tarnishing. As anyone who owns silver jewelry knows, it is very easily tarnished with even minimal contact with open air, but can be very hard to polish completely off. Anything that helps keep tarnish from forming in the first place is a huge help and time saver, and can keep your valuable silver looking beautiful and new for years to come.

The most useful jewelry boxes are made to be used in a multitude of ways. They will have either a lid that lifts, or doors on either side that open, where you can hang your necklaces so that the chains don't tangle. They will have small compartments for bracelets, broaches, pendants, and large earrings, and there will be enough compartments to keep each piece separate and protected. Jewelry boxes should also have special fabric rolls to store rings, usually by pushing the bottom of the ring between two fabric-sheathed foam rolls, so that the jewel rests on top safe from harm.

Jewelry boxes, then, are not merely boxes- they make efficient use of the space they take up, and can keep your jewelry safe, clean, polished, and neatly organized. The best jewelry box is the one which looks as beautiful as the jewelry it holds inside, and which is also functional and suitable to protect all the jewelry you wish to place in it.

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