Antique and Vintage Costume Jewelry Collecting online

The fun in collecting antiques is sharing your beloved collection with others who are as passionate about the items you collect, as you are. There’s no more passionate group than the 1000+ members of the Antique and Vintage Costume Jewelry Club who showcase their treasures on their Facebook page by the same name. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/49294159976/?ref=br_tf)

The site is so much more than a ‘show and tell.’ Many of the members have written books on the different costume jewelry manufacturers of the early to mid-1900s, when costume jewelry was in its heyday. A by product of the Great Depression, costume jewelry was originally produced by fine jewelers who applied their expertise to crafting more affordable jewelry, which is why so much of it has weathered the test of time.

The popularity of accessorizing ensembles with showy costume jewelry spawned numerous cottage industries, and evolved to high-volume manufacturing under names like Coro, Monet, Napier, and Trifari. And there wasn’t a fashion designer at the time, who didn’t have her own line of jewelry to compliment her designs. Their jewelry commanded high prices just like their fashions. Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel were, and still are, considered among the high-end of costume jewelry designers.

Many costume jewelry designers focused solely on their craft, producing exquisite jewelry that could pass for real, like Eisenberg, or perfecting the enameling and stone placement process like Boucher...Marcel Boucher, who was a French jeweler who traveled to the United States and studied under Pierre Cartier as an apprentice.

Many of the the large manufacturers carried different lines to reach niche markets, producing rhinestone brooches, figurals, bangle bracelets, and even holiday jewelry. All of this you can view on the Antique and Vintage Costume Jewelry Facebook page. New collectors can ask questions, get advice, and share photos of their favorite pieces. It’s reminiscent of the days when friends would dig through each other’s jewelry boxes at slumber parties, ooing and aahing over each other’s treasures. The one thing you can’t do on the site is buy and sell, but the magnificent collections displayed on the site didn’t materialize from thin air. Collectors are always interested in growing their collections, adding a missing piece to a set, or getting a favorite piece in every conceivable color. Thus the Collectible Jewelry Exchange was spawned.

The Collectible Jewelry Exchange Facebook page is the sister site for the collectors willing to part with jewelry by selling, trading, bartering, etc. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/vintagejewelryforsale/) The odds of finding a matching earring or a brooch to a set, are extremely good. If one of the 175 members doesn’t have the item, they probably know a source.

But to play in the big game you need to know the rules, and here are the rules. Everyone who participates should make an album of their items. This makes the site less cluttered, by shopping in sellers’ albums. Each album title is the name of the seller, to make it easy for buyers to locate specific sellers. Descriptions need to be specific as to size, color, stones, approximate age of the piece, and the price. Photos should show the front and back of the items, and any unique characteristics. Payment, shipping methods, and shipping charges should be included in the description as well. Sellers are advised not to ship until money is received, and has cleared the bank. Sellers are required to provide sellers  with tracking information. In all cases - trades or selling, participants must exchange working phone numbers and email addresses. All details should be confirmed offsite by email.

SITE DISCLAIMER...Transactions via trade, exchange, or outright sale, are between two parties privately. The creator of the page is not responsible for arrangements made regarding the transactions. The site serves only as a message board and is not responsible for negative outcomes or unhappy customers; that is to be handled between the two parties. Members are cautioned that if either party has fallen through on their end of the bargain, except in provable personal emergencies, they will be banned from the site, so email trails are essential!

After an item is sold, the seller should remove it from the album. NO SINGLE PHOTOS ARE ALLOWED ON THE SITE AND WILL BE DELETED FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE.

Newcomers to the site are cordially welcomed. The majority of the Facebook ‘Friends’ are among the most authoritative sources on antique and vintage costume jewelry, and are always willing to part with their knowledge...much more so than their collections.

The fruits of our efforts...Antique dealers should mimic customers' buying habits

Antique dealers who mimic their customers’ buying habits are more likely to realize the fruits of their labor. The modern-day collector is more likely to be a collector with a purpose, than a collector of sets and groupings of like items. With the passing of the Greatest Generation, there are few collectors left who collected with a passion, adding to their sterling silver flatware, their china pattern, or buying groupings like crystal bells, china tea cups, etc.

Based on observations of current shopping trends in antique shops, the modern collector is more intent on shopping for decorative items based on a theme, or in a specific color, and more likely selecting items that are utilitarian which can be used for a purpose and not just for display.

Making note of this shift in the antique market will enable dealers to shop more effectively for today’s buying trends. Instead of buying entire collections at an estate sale, selecting just the best or most outstanding items in each of the sets, will provide customers with quality and uniqueness.

By artfully displaying the merchandise by color or theme might incite customers to buy more. Case in point, the Spring Antique Mall changes their counter display based on the season or holiday. This corner location at their check-out counter has become known as the ‘sweet spot,’ because of the number of sales made from the clever counter displays. On occasion, the entire display has been purchased.

Examples of collecting by theme would be a fruit motif (as shown in the photo), birds, or Orientale. Not unlike the Victorian era which embraced the rose theme in upholstery, window coverings, and even wall paper. As opposed to collecting large groupings of like, but dissimilar items, today’s buyer is more likely to purchase based on a particular aesthetic like Country French, primitives, or mid-century modern, i.e. the mid-50s. Even the popular man’s cave is an eclectic collection of unlike items.

Collecting by color opens up an even broader mix of product. The collector is more likely to purchase across different eras if the color is right. Pink is a consistent best seller, as well as blue.

As the collector generation passes away and passes their beloved collections of multiple items to their heirs, they’re showing up in volume in the antique malls to collect dust. Dealers should be as discriminating in their buying as their customers are. Resist the temptation to buy whole lots of like items. Buying and ‘clustering’ items when displaying them, will increase the opportunity for more consistent and ‘fruitful’ sales.

Train-cipation

'Traincipation'...the anticipation children experience waiting for dad to get the electric trains out and set up for the holiday season. The electric train is probably the toy most synonymous with Christmas. Originally intended as a store front display to draw customers into the stores, the "Electric Express" became the most requested item, spawning a toy business that reached $25 million in sales per year, at its peak in the 1950s.

The original train was produced by Joshua Lionel Cowen in 1901, who founded the Lionel Corporation the previous year to produce electrical novelties, such as fans and lighting devices. The electric train remained at the top of the Christmas wish list for many years, until the Great Depression. It was considered an extravagance at the time as the most expensive locomotives cost as much as a used Ford Model T.

Unfortunately the Great Depression was followed by World War II, and Lionel ceased toy manufacturing in 1942, to produce nautical items for the United States Navy. The decade following the war, 1946-1956, was the Golden Age for Lionel. The colorful Santa Fe "Warbonnet" paint scheme introduced in 1948 (the Lionel 2333 diesel locomotive) became a bestseller. Model railroaders soon shifted to the smaller, more detailed HO scale trains, complete with paraphernalia that included buildings and landscaping. Th HO gauge and slot car racing sets were the rage in the 1960s, but never reached the popularity of the O-gauge trains. The more affordable plastic, molded cars (as opposed to metal castings and folded sheet metal) didn't significantly increase profitability, but provided a more realistic-looking train layout.

The former Lionel factory in Irvington, New Jersey, and the Hillside, New Jersey factory, were virtually the front and back doors of the same building. On April 14, 2004, a fire destroyed the former Lionel train factory located in Irvington. The old Lionel factory in Hillside where trains were manufactured in the early 1920s to 1969, survived.

The decline in model railroading le to bankruptcy, and although the value of the company dropped, the prices of the older O-gauge trains skyrocketed. Pre-WWII trains, based on condition and completeness of the train set, will start at $500 and go up. In 2006, Lionel's electric train became one of the first two electric toys to be inducted into the National toy Hall of Fame. Although no longer a popular hobbyist pastime, many of these vintage Lionel O-gauge trains are still pulled out during the holidays and set up as an integral part of the Christmas display...the purpose for which they were originally intended.

A Toast to the New Year

What better way to toast the New Year than with a vessel that has become synonymous with toasting…the stein. Abbreviated from either the German word Steingut, which means ‘stoneware,’ or Steinzeugkrug, meaning stoneware jug or tankard, stoneware (a heavy pottery material) was the most commonly used material for beer mugs. Later the use of porcelain and glass were introduced, but regardless of the material, a stein refers to a container to drink beer with, that most likely has a hinged lid.

The stein originated around the 14th century. The spread of the bubonic plague throughout Europe forced Germany to pass a law stating that all beverage containers needed a lid to prevent diseased fleas from getting into the beer. The lids were usually made of pewter and equipped with a lever on the same side as the handle, so one could hold the mug and open and close the lid with a single hand.

Although stoneware allowed for the use of molds for mass production, the weight was significant when a stein was filled to the brim. The latter half of the 19th century saw the introduction of glass which enabled artistic touches like overlays, etchings, and personalizing with monograms. But the porcelain mugs are among the most magnificent. Porcelain molds could produce unique shapes and characters, and could be hand painted in greater detail. Renown for its marvelous porcelain, the German stein pictured, is a magnificent example of high-quality porcelain, beautiful hand-painting detailing a historical event, and painstaking calligraphy providing the significant details. The lithophane bottom is a very translucent, molded porcelain depicting a couple in period clothing, and is most unique for a stein.

Unfortunately I was unable to do the research on the event portrayed, as the stein was sold to a collector during the holidays. This stein will truly be the bellwether in a collection with its beautiful artist rendering, detailed horse and rider atop the pewter lid, and elaborate lever. The number of horses hooves in the air originally indicated how the rider died…two front raised hooves signified that the rider died in battle; one raised hoof meant that the rider was wounded in battle, possibly dying of the wounds later; all four hooves on the ground…the rider survived all battles. American monuments, however, have deviated from this tradition. Without thoroughly researching this particular stein, we can only deduce that it was a commemorative piece produced in 1906 (date painted on stein), about an historic military figure who might possibly have died in battle.

Steins usually come in half liter or a full liter sizes, but steins made for decorative or collectible purposes may deviate from these sizes. Although a niche market, many were purchased for gifts during the holiday season.


Photos by Collage