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.

What's In A Name?

To the new generation of antique collectors, some terms may be unfamiliar. A few unusual ones are listed, with one being discussed just recently on the Antiques Roadshow when in Houston.

Garniture

Local ceramics expert, David Lackey of David Lackey Antiques & Art, defined a ‘garniture.’ "It's a group of decorative objects made as a set to be prominently displayed on something like a mantel or a buffet table," stated Lackey.

He went on to explain that they were never made in sets of twos, fours, or sixes. "They always come in odd numbers," he says. "There's always three, five, or seven, with a central element flanked by pairs." For instance, the centerpiece might be a clock, flanked by a pair of candlesticks or urns. Often the center item would be a large compote or bowl, or an elaborate epergne…a bowl with arms supporting smaller bowls.

Popular in the 18th & 19th centuries, garnitures were elaborately made of French old Paris porcelain, Meissen porcelain from Dresden, Germany, and emulated in Naples, Italy, by the Capodimonte porcelain manufactory.

Unfortunately they were deemed ostentatious and fell out of favor in the 20th century. The garnitures were often separated when estates were passed on to the next generation, or a piece may have been broken. Those that have survived the test of time, command high prices.

Parure

Often referred to as a suite, a ‘parure’ is an entire wardrobe of matching jewelry which could include a necklace, a bracelet, brooch, ring, and a pair of earrings, and at one time also might include a comb, a tiara, a diadem (ornamental headband), and even a belt clasp. And old French term, parure means adornment, from the verb parer, to adorn. Any woman with this many matching pieces would certainly be guilty of adorning herself, and by today’s standards…shamelessly. But in 17th century Europe, a woman of station would not be considered well dressed if the ensemble of jewelry did not match, and not worn in its entirety.

Minaudiere

Minaudieres are small, rigid metal boxes with several compartments for all the essentials a woman would need for an evening out. They included a powder compact, lipstick, comb, money clip, cigarette compartment, and a coin section. The first were designed in the 1930s by Charles Arpels of Van Cleef & Arpels, the French jewelry, watch & perfume company. The popular concept was then produced by other jewelers and cosmetic companies. They remain treasured keepsakes and often handed down in the family to the next generation. The value on minaudieres has remained high, and to find one in very good to mint condition is rare.

With Mother’s Day approaching, any of these items…a garniture, parure, or minaudiere, would make a magnificent gift for Mom. Expect all to be over $100 in value, but keep in mind it will become a family heirloom.

Section on garnitures sourced from Antique Roadshow website http://to.pbs.org/JgJxkr & Mr. David Lackey’s Facebook page http://on.fb.me/J5QSUM
Section on parures sourced from Wikipedia
Section & photo of minaudieres: “Ladies Vintage Accessories” by LaRee Johnson Bruton
Photo collage by Collage


Photo caption: (left to right) The 19th century ‘garniture’ appraised by David Lackey on the Houston episode of the Antiques Roadshow; a 1950s “Weiss” parure; and three ‘minaudiers’, circa 1930s.

Jewelry For All Seasons

As soon as the temperature drops to the low 80’s, out comes the sterling jewelry…the charm bracelets and the silver chain necklaces. No, sterling jewelry is not seasonal, but by relegating jewelry to specific seasons for practical reasons, it will ‘weather’ the test of time. Nothing can be more caustic to silver jewelry than the salt produced by perspiration. (Sweat as we refer to it in the heat and humidity of Houston, Texas.) Combined with perfume and the chemicals in lotions, and you have a formula for disaster.

Other jewelry fares better in summer...Bakelite, Lucite, and beaded jewelry, both glass and stone. But it’s still advisable to wipe this jewelry with a clean, damp cloth after wear, as those same chemicals in the lotions could affect the coloring of jewelry made from chemical byproducts like Bakelite. Every woman has her favorite pieces of jewelry, but keep in mind, the more often you wear it, the more likely you are to ‘wear’ it out. Why not balance the usage by rotating jewelry by the season. Consulting with Jewel Collect member and one of the most knowledgeable jewelry sources I know, Molly Garza, she provided this list of recommendations:

Spring – Costume jewelry in the pastel palette (as the inexpensive metal alloys will deteriorate just like silver, for all the same reasons…perspiration, chemicals, and perfume.) And of course, wear your sterling silver jewelry.

Summer – Break out the Bakelite bangles and beaded bracelets, and wear jewelry that doesn’t fit snuggly, so that it has air space. It’s best to wear costume jewelry brooches during this season as they’re affixed to your clothing and not your skin in the hot summer months.

Fall – Resurrect the costume jewelry but in the autumn colors when the temperature drops, and break out sterling silver again.

Winter– Show off the showy rhinestone jewelry during the holiday season.

Gold really is the gold standard. It can be pulled up from the bottom of the ocean three hundred years after it went down with the ship, and it emerges it mint condition. There were plenty of good reasons why a king’s ransom was mostly gold. A much better choice when the temperature soars. There was also a time when women had day jewelry and evening jewelry. The day jewelry was yellow gold; the evening jewelry was white gold. Now it’s more a matter of personal preference, but whatever the color of gold…year round, any time.

By selectively wearing jewelry based on the season, your jewelry collection can become family heirlooms that can be passed down from generation to generation.