Collecting Vintage Costume Jewellery, Antique and Vintage Jewellery Magazine Articles, Antiques on TV

From time to time I write the odd article about collecting antique and vintage costume jewellery and I will post things here for information. If I can help you with more details about this subject do not hesitate to get in touch. I will always do my best to give you advice about your old and collectable jewellery.

Pleased to have an article published in December 2011's " The Plastiquarian" which is the Journal of the Plastics Historical Society. The article is entitled "Early Plastic Jewellery - Fakes and Forgeries".

November 2011 has seen me on TV, twice over! Yours truly was filmed with Actress Caroline Quentin and Antiques Auctioneer Charlie Ross for the BBC's Children in Need version of 'Celebrity Antiques Road Trip'. The good news is that Caroline bought some vintage costume jewellery from me! Sir Terry Wogan also featured on this show. A repeat of an Antiques programme from a couple of Summers ago shows me selling Vintage Cufflinks to Antiques TV Presenter Jonty Hearndon as part of the 'Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is' series. Stop press, I will be filming with Jonty again soon...watch this space.

Collecting vintage costume jewellery has never been more popular as both a hobby and a style statement. Sunday supplements urge their readers to ‘buy vintage’ and people are happy to be seen wearing something from the past. Secondhand is no longer second best! But what is Vintage Costume Jewellery? The term ‘Vintage’ used to be reserved for fine wine and lovely old cars! It has been borrowed and generally means items from between the 1920s right up to the 1980s if we are talking about fashion. ‘Antique’ used to mean something over 100 years old but increasingly it is applied to anything between 50 to 100 years or more which is desirable because of its rarity and condition.

When people think of Antique Jewellery, they usually think of gold and precious gems. The term Costume Jewellery is applied to items made of non-precious materials. Gold and gems have an intrinsic value and regardless of their condition will always be worth something - even if they are scrapped! The value of Costume Jewellery depends on its style (which can go in and out of favour) and its condition; so it is extremely important to seek out items in the best possible condition and to buy pieces you love! It is worth buying from reputable specialist dealers and visiting fairs, auctions, checking out the internet, looking in at your local boot fair and charity shop – this way your collection is sure to grow! Costume jewellery should be fun and it is easy to personalize a chain store outfit with a great sparkly brooch or a quirky animal pin.

Costume Jewellery is sometimes known as fashion jewellery, junk jewellery, fake jewellery, faux jewellery or even fallalery! It really came into being in the 1920s and 1930s as a cheap and disposable accessory meant to be worn with a specific outfit or ‘costume’ and only supposed to be fashionable for a season. The fashion designer Coco Chanel is often credited with inventing Costume Jewellery as she did a lot to popularize it; wearing ropes of fake Pearls and including faux jewels in her collections. Whilst in America the fashion house, Eisenburg, included a sparkly brooch with each of their frocks and they were so popular that they introduced the brooches for sale on their own!

Production of costume jewellery has occurred all over the globe but it is important to mention Czechoslovakia for Swarovski’s fine diamante stones (they are still the world leaders when it comes to paste!) indeed Bohemia in general for its contribution of fabulous pressed metal filigrees, hand set with the most beautiful glass stones. France for its ultra chic Art Deco jewellery with superb early plastics set with rhinestones. Japan must be included as Mikimoto’s Cultured Pearls made it possible for most of us to afford some. Don’t forget Germany for the best in Chrome and early plastics; Scandinavia for wonderful enamel and silver work; Italy for its art glass and carved cameos. The USA for deep–carved and bright coloured Bakelite pieces and Hollywood Glitz ,especially Diamante, America’s 1940’s and 1950’s jewels are second to none. Britain should figure too for the lovingly sewn ‘make do and mend’ creations from the World War 2 era; a host of imitations of Whitby Jet from those innovative Victorian inventors and Birmingham our ‘jewellery quarter’ still ‘in business’ today.

A whole variety of materials have been used to fashion the most amazing pieces: Metals, Glass, Semi-precious Gemstones, Bone, Wood, Horn, Shells, Amber, Manmade Plastics such as Vulcanite, Celluloid, Bakelite, Lucite, Acrylics, Polythene. Fabrics – both from natural and synthetic threads, Feathers, Paper, Clay, Leather, even Elephant and Human Hair! You will find Beads, of course!, Necklaces, Bracelets, Bangles, Brooches, Dress Clips, Earrings, Rings, Anklets, Pins, Hair Ornaments, Hatpins, Gentleman’s Accessories like Cufflinks and Tiepins as well as Buckles and Buttons. Some of these will be factory and designer made; others naive and home crafted. You can collect by type of item, by period, by colour, by subject, by material, by maker or country of origin and so on, the possibilities are endless!

Reflecting the style, fashion, history and innovation of each era, costume jewellery is a fascinating collectable. It has the added advantage of being wearable, easy to store and available to anyone with a budget from 50p to £500+ for some of the more important ‘signed’ pieces. If an item is referred to as ‘signed’ it means it carries the trademark or signature of the designer and/or manufacturer. Often this is in the form of an applied plaque on the back or tag on the clasp of the jewel or maybe in the form of a paper label. Not all pieces of Costume Jewellery are marked and some of the most valuable works – the early collections from great designers - were unsigned. It is helpful for collectors to learn some of the important makers’ names and the best way to do this is to invest in a book on the subject. Highly recommended are Carole Tanenbaum’s ‘Vintage Costume Jewellery’ ISBN 1-85149-511-8 9000 and Judith Miller’s ‘Costume Jewellery’ ISBN 1-4053-0014-0. Both books have a gorgeous selection of photos and lots of useful information for both novice collectors and specialists.

******************************************************************************************************************

EARLY PLASTIC JEWELLERY – FAKES AND FORGERIES   by Caroline Henney
Published in ‘THE PLASTIQUARIAN’ December 2011
The Plastiquarian is the Journal of the Plastics Historical Society.
There is a certain irony in being asked to write about ‘fake plastic’ in that most of the wonderful, collectable and valuable costume jewellery pieces we encounter today were originally ‘fakes’ themselves. So many of the inventions and compositions from the past which resulted in the manufacture of Vulcanite, Celluloid, Casein, Bakelite and Lucite plastics were achieved by scientists attempting to emulate natural materials that were valuable or difficult to source. There was something honest back in those days, however, as the pieces were developed to allow a larger number of people to enjoy wearing and using items that would have been beyond their budgets. The French manufactured a celluloid product which mimicked Ivory very well; complete with lines which look just like the cross hatching you find on ivory. It was used for all the things you might expect to find made of real ivory – boxes, dressing table sets, jewellery etc but it was generally heat stamped ‘ French Ivory’ and sold as such. The popularity of Whitby Jet in the Victorian era led to a plethora of jet substitutes, the plastic ones being pressed horn, Vulcanite and other compositions. Young maids in Edwardian England could sweep their hair up in a celluloid hair comb whereas tortoiseshell combs would have been reserved for their mistresses only. Factory girls and aristocratic flappers alike piled on their colourful Bakelite bangles and wore ropes of obviously fake plastic pearls – Chanel herself made that quite ‘OK’ and the affordability appealed to all back in the 1930s .
Another great benefit from these early plastic materials, made in imitation of the real thing, was a decline in animal cruelty, which had often pushed species to the verge of extinction. Man-made early plastics made credible substitutes for ivory, tortoiseshell and corals; looking good and being functional too.   It could be argued that the use of Horn involves material from animals but it was a by-product of the food chain and as such it would be wasteful not to use it. It wasn’t just products sourced from the living world that were ‘mimicked’ the list of Bakelite bead colours in an American advert from 1924 reads Amber, Jet, Ruby, Jade, Carnelian and Emerald. These beads would never have been intended to be sold as genuine precious stones just as fun items in real jewel colours.
In the vintage jewellery world the term ‘Bakelite’ is often applied to all kinds of early plastics. Some price guide books actually describe celluloid jewellery and casein jewellery as Bakelite. I like to use it to describe those pieces made from phenolic resin and this tends to be the standard. Just like Hoover is synonymous to the vacuum cleaner, then Bakelite has become the same for phenolic pieces and Lucite for acrylic pieces.
Today one of the most common misnomers is encountered in relation to Amber bead necklaces, particularly in those dating from the first quarter of the 20th Century. Nearly all the faceted ‘Cherry Amber’ or ‘Red Amber’ long beaded necklaces that I am asked to value turn out to be Bakelite. They have often been ‘handed down’ in the family and are fondly referred to as ‘Granny’s Amber Necklace’.   I often see Bakelite beads wrongly described as ‘Amber’ at antiques fairs, on line and in shops.    The good news for the owners is the price is high for these Bakelite beads, they might not be Amber, but people value these early Bakelite copies and they command high prices on auction sites and at fairs. Another dealer told me that many of these red coloured amber-like Bakelite beads were being sold to overseas buyers and were being rethreaded for use as prayer beads and that this is the reason for the price hike on internet auction sites where it is not uncommon for them to sell for over £200.
When it comes to describing things, there is, at best, a lot of people who don’t really understand their stock and, at worst, a whole load of dishonest people out there deliberately fooling the public and selling modern, cheap plastic as ‘1930’s Bakelite’ or ‘1950’s reverse carved Lucite’. The reason for this could be the big prices that are achieved for the genuine pieces that date from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. I am appalled at how often I see modern plastic bangles in particular being described as old, genuine Bakelite and with big price tags to prove it.   It is not just auction sites that have are cheating people, it is also antiques dealers at fairs and in shops too.
Some craftspeople re-work original material to make new items. For example, Ron and Esther Shultz in America have made such an art form of it that their works are collected in their own right. But they sign their pieces. Some of the modern fakes of vintage pieces have the signature also faked. However, many times pieces such as cast phenolic resin (termed Bakelite) bangles, earrings and pendants made out of old Mah Jong or domino pieces are neither signed, nor sold as original except for the materials used.
The Americans tend to be more savvy when it comes to the fakes and forgeries. Dubbing the rogue pieces masquerading as Bakelite as ‘Fakelite’ some of their top dealers have been sounding the alarm bells for a number of years.   There are quite a few of them ready to expose fakes so guidelines and photos are often published on line. . I love the website of Karima Parry www.plasticfantastic.com. Not only does she sell the most fabulous Bakelite bangles she is a real authority on early plastics and is willing to share her knowledge with her published information.
It matters to collectors to have correct pieces in their collections. So what can we do to counter this Fakelite fraud? Educate and inform is the answer. Familiarise yourself with the genuine pieces by looking at the items at fairs, in books and on trusted websites. If you have a real interest in Bakelite, Lucite and other early plastics it is likely that you will have handled it and learned to appreciate its features. Talk to dealers, ask questions. Be wary if there are lots of the same piece available in different colours and designs. It is quite hard to collect together a good stock of early plastics.   Whilst some things may have similarities, too many of the same thing being available should ring your alarm bells. Most of the good pieces were hand finished and very well designed, often quirky.   You get to know the colours of Bakelite. Remember here that Bakelite has a tendency to oxidise so pieces that were ivory cream in the 1940s will be an amber yellow now, pinks change to orange, violets to brown and blues to green. The marbling on Bakelite is distinctive; so is the patina it builds over the years. Bakelite has a certain weight to it so when you handle it often you get accustomed to that feature. When Bakelite bangles are worn together on the arm they have their own music – a special and unmistakable clunk! The way that pins are attached to the back of brooches can be an indication that they are genuine and by keeping an eye on what is sold in mainstream shops you can learn so much as you identify the current products’ features and compare them to items from the past. A particular acrylic bangle made by a High street retailer last year and sold for £1.50 appears on auction sites all the time described as ‘a 1950’s reverse carved Lucite bangle’ and often sells for £25 or more
It is a measure of the popularity of good early plastic that people have devised tests to confirm if something is Bakelite.   The Americans tend to use a product called 409 but I find T-Cut works too. When rubbed onto Bakelite it gives a deep yellow stain onto the cloth. Even this test is not fail proof however as some items were ‘resin washed’ or coated in varnishes and some black and red coloured pieces do not always conform.   Hot water helps as if you dip a piece of early plastic material into it there is usually a smell – camphor like for Celluloid, formaldehyde like for Bakelite and phenolic plastics and very cheesy for Casein and Galilith, no smell at all for Lucite and most of the new plastics. A test often recommended which fills me with dread involves piercing an item with a red hot metal pin. I fail to see why people would do this. First, it will ruin the piece forever and secondly, if it is celluloid it could well explode and injure you!
***************************************************************************************************************************************************

There are so many ways to enjoy your vintage dress clips. If you have a pair there are the obvious and traditional sites. Place on the two corners of a square neckline or either side of the ‘v’ or round neck on your frock or blouse; the indents on your coat lapel or jacket collar just like they did in the 1930’s and 1940’s. For a more modern approach, how about popping them onto soft ballet shoes and pumps or over the turn back cuffs on your sleeves; into the tiny top front pockets on your jeans or trousers or over your belt? Single vintage dress clips were a must in the Art Deco era placed on the ‘v’ neck or ‘v’ back of a garment or adorning a hat when positioned over a hat band. They are super when used as hair slides just clip directly onto your hair barrette style. They work just as well on a hair band. For a pendant style necklace place your dress clip over a chain or bead necklace or onto a ribbon for an effective choker. As a scarf clip they are great and they become a brooch when pinned over a safety pin – just fasten the pin through the fabric of your garment from behind and secure your dress clip over the bar. As a vintage fashion accessory they are hard working and you will enjoy finding new ways to wear your dress clips. For a bride they could represent the ‘something old or something blue traditionally worn at a wedding or could even be used in the bride and bridesmaids’ bouquets. A competent florist will easily wire a dress clip into position. Remember you can also use vintage dress clips in the home to decorate curtains and soft furnishings or napkins at the dinner table. They would add a special extra little gift if fastened over a ribbon on your birthday and Xmas parcels. If you have a large collection of vintage dress clips you could even use them to create a sparkling and festive touch when clipped onto your Christmas tree!

Remember most antique and vintage dress clips fasten with tiny sharp teeth to secure them in place so special care is needed if fastening them onto fragile fabrics like silk. Also, although clips are secure, they are generally not as robust as a brooch pin fastening so it can make sense to simply tack them in place – especially in hard working areas like on your shoes! Finally wearing vintage dress clips adds an old fashioned and original style to your outfit so enjoy!

If you collect vintage costume jewellery, have a passion for antique jewelry and want to have an easy reference point I hope to be able to help with some facts, designer signatures, background information about jewellery manufacturers and artists and a list of jewellery terminology and definitions. I hope that this little cornucopia of information will be of interest and use to collectors and wearers of vintage jewellery. If you are looking at this information and feel that anything is inaccurate or you are a jewellery historian or collector who would like to add to what I have said or ask a specific question then please feel free to get in touch. If I can help with your enquiry I will and I would be delighted to learn from you! One of the joys of collecting vintage jewellery is meeting some of the lovely dealers and collectors who are so willing to share what they know with others. The more we can do this, the more we can enjoy our finds! The information I have here has been gathered from a lifetime of collecting and a couple of decades of dealing in vintage costume jewellery. I have learned the information that I share here from a whole load of sources - from conversations, museum visits, television and radio shows, reference books and documents, the internet, collectors society meetings and talks, specialist magazines and newspapers. This is an ongoing project and I hope that it will be a growing one. Please refer to the INFORMATION section for more........