The Red Rhinestone Coro Earrings

I have a secret.  I'm not just a vendor of vintage jewelry.  I am a lover of vintage jewelry, and if I could, I would buy, buy, buy and never part with anything.  It's not just that it's beautiful.  I feel like each piece has a story to tell.  Some were worn when the now husband of 54 years proposed.  Some were worn for a college graduation.  Or for a funeral.  And some were presents from long gone loved ones that ended up sitting in a jewelry box for 50 or even 75 years. 

The other part of my secret is that I regard many pieces of vintage jewelry as orphans.  Vintage jewelry was often designed as sets that got broken up over the years.  I want to bring these sets back together.  Like a lost child coming home.

Of course, I love some of my jewelry pieces more than others.  So it was with great sadness that I recently sent the lovely Coro earrings above off to a new home.  I had these for quite a while and didn't list them for months because I couldn't part with them.  I had seen them in a book as part of a set and I really wanted to find the matching choker.  Alas, it was not to be. 

They have gone to a new home.  I hope the person who purchased them will take good care of them.  I hope they already had other parts of the set so they are going back to their family.  I miss them already, but now I must bid them a fond farewell. 

Gather Ye Rosebuds...

I was going through some of my collection and I was struck by the fact that some motifs in jewelry that have been around forever. Flowers, for example have been used for beautification ever since the first cave woman stuck a flower in her hair for cave men to admire and other cave women to envy.

Of course there are a lot of different species of flowers and jewelry reflects nature's diversity. For example, you will find daisies, black-eyed susans, chrysanthemums, dahlias in both fine and costume jewelry. However, one of the most enduring and favorite flowers used by jewelry designers are the rose and rosebud.



Here's a perfect example of a great use of material by a designer to depict a very realistic rosebud. The designer has used both gold and silver tone metals to bring out the details. Through the intelligent use of materials, this piece conveys a very natural feeling. Alas, this piece is unsigned, so we will never know who made such a wonderful creation.


A completely different approach was used on the little carved white brooch below. The rose is much more stylized because of the nature of the material used for the rose. The leaves are much more realistic. Both the rose and petals are contained in a twisted circle of gold. This is a classic piece of costume jewelry from the 1950's - 1960's that would look just as good on today's fashions as it did then.


Of course, rosebuds weren't just used for brooches. Roses for the ear proliferate just as much as roses for the bosom. There are many examples of roses and rosebuds for the ears. Small rose earrings were particularly popular in the 1950's and remain popular today. I'll leave you with this interesting pair of Coro earrings that are embellished with rhinestones. These particular earrings are a bit unusual because the earrings have a full stem and two large leaves. It's much more common to see just a single rose with perhaps one or two tiny leaves peeking through from the back.

Perhaps there is a matching brooch out there somewhere for these earrings?

Retro Jewelry and Plastic Jewelry

Since I talked about the types of jewelry I like to collect, I thought I would share some pictures of my favorite pieces.

Plastics have been used to make jewelry since around the turn of the century. Bakelite is probably the most well-known for use in jewelry, but other commonly used plastics include celluloid, lucite and thermoset. This pretty red necklace is actually a combination of plastics. The red links are made of celluloid and the interesting heart is a clear lucite over red lucite. The heart pendant is nearly three inches wide.

Celluloid could be used to make very elaborate jewelry. It was easily carved and molded into shape, like the links above. This bracelet is a perfect example of one of the more elaborate designs. Although this piece is pure white and looks like chalk, many of these bracelets were highly colored.

Because celluloid, as well as many other plastics, were cheap and so easily formed, they were often used for a lot of novelty jewelry. Remember Cracker Jacks? Cracker Jack "prizes" were often made of celluloid.

Celluloid is also highly flamable, so you want to keep it away from flame. I can't help but wonder how many pieces were lost back in the days when everyone smoked.

Retro is a term that is used often to refer to something that is a throw back to another era. However, there was a specific style of jewelry popular in the 1940's that is called Retro. Think back to some of the classic black and white movies of the time. Remember the women's fashions? Plain suits with straight skirts and jackets with wide lapels and broad, heavily padded shoulders. Retro jewelry, with its simple, bold lines was a perfect accompaniment for those styles. The pale blue stones on this piece make it a particularly attractive example.

Here's a smiliar piece with purple or violet rhinestones. This piece is signed Corocraft by Coro. Coro was one of the most prolific costume jewelry companies through the 30's and 40's. They created a great deal of Retro jewelry which is collectible today. Typical of Coro jewelry at the time, this piece is a gold wash over sterling silver.

Of course, these are just a few favorites. I have so many more, I couldn't possible post them all.