Bangles, Baubles and Big Sales
February 2006
One of the most alluring aspects of collecting vintage costume jewelry is the thrill of acquiring pieces of incredible beauty and unprecedented workmanship. Early pieces from the 1930s to the 1950s were made by jewelers from the fine jewelry trade who applied their craft to costume jewelry. Imitating fine jewelry, the handcrafted prong-set designs utilized faux pearls and simulated precious gemstones, colorful enamels and Swarovski crystals in necklaces, brooches, earrings and bracelets. High-end pieces now command hefty prices, while mass-produced costume jewelry is more affordable. However, depending upon economic conditions, auction and dealer activity prices go up and down. In addition, the increased exposure of costume jewelry through eBay has resulted in far more buyers becoming aware of costume jewelry’s value as an investment and a collectible.
What to buy can be perplexing. “The ’70’s style is getting hot,” says Harrice Simons Miller, a New York dealer and author of The Official Price Guide to Costume Jewelry. “Now is a great time to collect Eisenberg enamels, Trifari, Panetta, Ciner, Chanel, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent pieces, which can still be found at reasonable prices. As for future collectibles, Miller advises, “You should consider purchasing contemporary jewelry by top designers now and put it away for 20 years to age its intrinsic value.”
Knowledge of buying and selling trends can best be acquired by keeping close tabs on vintage costume jewelry auctions and estate sales held at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Doyle in New York and Skinner’s in Boston. In 2004, at Doyle’s twice-yearly Couture, Textiles and Accessories auction, a mint-condition Chanel sautoir and oblong pendant, circa 1935, in silver-plated metal set with rhinestones and imitation emeralds, was auctioned at $1,500. In the ’30s the same sautoir may have sold for just a few hundred dollars.
The incised name of a designer or a manufacturer’s mark makes a significant difference in value. Signed pieces by Boucher, Ciner, Miriam Haskell, Panetta and Eisenberg command steep prices and are highly collectible, as are pieces incised with a manufacturer’s mark such as Coro, Monet, Napier, Trifari and Vendome.
In a class of their own are the limited-edition couture costume jewelry for the Parisian couture houses Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. These high-end designer pieces, devised to complement their runway collections, are highly collectible and increase most in value. However, many of the extravagant costume jewelry pieces attributed to the haute couture designers actually were designed by legendary French jewelry designers Gripoix, Robert Goossens and Roger Jean-Pierre. Among the many treasures in the exhibition “Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Barrel Apfel Personal Collection” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which closed in January, was a stunning one-of-a-kind pair of large Gripoix peacock brooches set in faux pearls, blue and green glass, rhinestones and metal. According to Apfel, these brooches were made exclusively for her by Gripoix and originally were priced at a couple hundred dollars. “These pieces would sell for around $5,000 to $6,000,” she says.
Celebrity-owned jewelry with a certificate of authenticity can be a good investment as well. A case in point is Harrice Miller’s acquisition of the costume jewelry from the personal collection of movie star/dancer Ann Miller. She loved showy and big pieces, and designers William de Lillo and Hattie Carnegie figured prominently in her collection.
Today some of the most collectible 1960’s costume jewelry includes Kenneth Jay Lane oversized earrings, large necklaces, animal bracelets and bold pins. In June 2005 at the Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles, a Kenneth Jay Lane tiger bracelet sold for $540. At the same auction, an imitation emerald, pearl and
diamond necklace with matching ear clips, made for Balenciaga Couture in the 1960s sold for $5,400. “In the old days you could walk into a flea market or thrift shop and find a Schiaparelli or early Chanel, but those glory days are over,” laments Los Angeles dealer Maria Domont. In a rare find, in 1987 Domont bought a collection of 826 original 1930’s through 1970’s samples in mint condition with their original tags directly from the Miriam Haskell Company. Considering the average wage in the 1930s, pieces that sold from $25 to $35 were considered expensive. Today, the same pieces garner prices that have escalated from $1,500 to $2,000.
Auguste Bonaz Galaith necklace, 1930s.
“The distinctive quality of vintage costume jewelry pieces from the 1930s focuses on the work of fine jewelers like Parisian Marcel Boucher. He came to New York and worked for Cartier, but left in the ’30s to set up his own firm,” explains jewelry historian Joyce Jonas. “His first collection of three-dimensional bird pins was made with colored rhinestones and unusual translucent enamels. Nothing like it had ever been done before. Each piece was beautifully crafted and prong-set. Originally priced from $40 to $60, in today’s market these same pins go for $800 and at the high-end $1,500 to $1,600.”
“Chanel was a visionary and the high quality of her costume jewelry was made and prong-set like fine jewelry,” says Pauline Ginnane-Gasbarro, a New York dealer who specializes in Chanel pieces that sell from $4,000 and up. “Coco Chanel, the epitome of chic, is considered to be the first designer in the 1930s to coordinate costume jewelry with her haute couture collections. She gave master jeweler Fulco Santostefano della Cerda, Duke of Verdura, his start as a costume jewelry designer. He first introduced the combination of multicolored glass stones and pearls in necklaces, cuff bracelets and brooches.
Innumerable photographs show Chanel wearing her favorite Maltese cross cuffs and other signature pieces. Kenneth Jay Lane revived this design in the ’60s, and today Verdura uses real gemstones.”
“Ralph DeRosa’s three-dimensional naturalistic designs featuring painted enamel, vines and flowers were also coveted designs,” notes Easton, Pennsylvania, dealer Roy Rover. “There are all different grades of costume jewelry, but more valued is a signed DeRosa piece. A charming fur clip with strawberries, clear round rhinestones, enameled cerise and iridescent green, gilt metal earrings that might been priced in the ’30s at about $30 to $40, today would sell from $500 to $750.”
New plastic materials originating at the turn of the 20th century introduced Bakelite, which was fashioned into a type of whimsical costume jewelry that became popular in America and abroad between the 1930s to the 1940s. “Today Bakelite is having a renaissance,” says Ellen Israel, co-owner with partner Marcie Imberman of the Kentshire Collection sold at Bergdorf Goodman and at the Greenwich Village Kentshire Galleries. “These stackable bangle bracelets, brooches and necklaces have distinctive charm and were worked in vivid, bold colors and incised or hand-carved with geometric and floral motifs. Whimsical figurative brooches—bunnies, dogs and clowns, some with movable parts—reflect the tenor of the times. After the Depression, people wanted to forget about their troubles and wear jewelry that would lift their spirits.”
Israel points out that a Bakelite piece that may have sold for $50 in the 1930s today might sell in the hundreds to the thousands. It depends on the piece’s rarity, design and condition, among other factors. “A French Bakelite black-and-white necklace of geometric design, circa 1930, signed by Auguste Bonaz would bring much more money than an unsigned piece,” says Ginny Redington Dawes, co-author with Corinne Davidov of the Bakelite Jewelry Book. “In 1972 this necklace sold for $750.” Recently, it sold for $3,250.
In the 1950s costume jewelry came into its own. No longer did it have to look real; “frankly fake” became chic. Companies from the 1950s that are collectible today include Trifari. A parure floral and foliate set (necklace, earrings and bracelet) in simulated rubies and amethysts with gilt-metal leaves incised with a crown over the “T” and the copyright symbol on all pieces would garner from $350 to $500.
“Antiques Roadshow” in 2006 will air a costume jewelry segment featuring the Providence Jewelry Museum in Providence, Rhode Island. From the 1920s to the ’50s, Providence was the center for American manufacturing of costume jewelry as well as precious metal jewelry. Today Providence retains its heritage, and much of the costume jewelry manufacturing is still located there.
For More Information
Maria Domont, Los Angeles. (310) 289-9500.
Kentshire Gallery, New York. (212) 673-6644.
Pauline Ginnane-Gasbarro, New York. (212) 598-9136.
Joyce Jonas, New York. (212) 535 2479.
Juliens Auctions, Los Angeles. (310) 836-1818.
Kentshire Collection, Bergdorf Goodman, New York. (212) 872-8653.
Harrice Simons Miller, New York. (212) 532-1394.
Providence Jewelry Museum, Providence, R.I. (401) 274-0999.
Roy Rover Antiques, Easton, Pa. (610) 253-1848.
Polly Guérin, a former adjunct assistant professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, covers antiques and contemporary design for Art & Antiques.