Monet The Master Jewelers by Alice Vega

A new book is just out on Monet jewellery. Monet The Master Jewelers by Alice Vega was first published a couple of weeks ago and is not one to miss. A large and heavy book filled with the history of Monet or previously Monocraft jewellery. Adverts that date Monet jewellery and plenty of pieces arranged in decades until the eighties.

The company may have started in 1927 as an initials business, producing the monograms that were a popular trend of the 1920s & 1930s for initially cars. The Great Depression, saw them move to handbags as few could afford cars. Expanding their business into jewellery, the company went from Monocraft to Monet in 1937. They produced a YSL line in the 1980s and in the 1990s manufactured the Christian Lacroix line. In 1996 saving the company from bankruptcy, Liz Clairebourne company took over. Still having a name for quality and style Monet continues to expand  today
.

Great book on jewellery, well written and researched and contains page after page of jewellery, definitely one to buy and keep in your reference library.

Here are just a few of the Monet jewellery pieces that are available on Jewels and Finery at the moment.
 

Monet jewellery set of a swirl brooch and matching earrings

We do have many other pieces in stock that we add every week onto the website.

Mirella Brooches

Good morning, I have wrote about jewellery signed Mirella before. W A P Watson the company who produced the Exquisite brand also produced Mirella. Named after an employee, the brand was for fancy goods and mirrors. However I discovered a short time ago that they also produced a few pieces of jewellery under that name - well two brooches it seems!

This was the purple vintage brooch that I brought a while back.

I have seen this brooch not only signed Mirella but also signed Exquisite.

This is the other brooch (below) that I have just brought signed Mirella. It is the only other one that I have seen under the Mirella brand. Both brooches are in my own collection but we source Exquisite and Mirella jewellery that will be added to the page on the above link regularly.

Both pretty floral designs and hand enameled with mock marcasite. Would say they date to the 1960s.
We have added more vintage brooches over the last few weeks in floral designs as well as with many other looks.

BJL Signature on enamel jewellery

BJL signed enamel jewellery was a mystery to many vintage costume jewellery collectors. But at long last the mystery has been solved. BJL stamp refers to The Bohemian Jewellery Ltd company. they produced a huge amount of enamel and marcasite jewellery. Some are stamped and many are not.  

To jog memories here are a few pieces to help things along.

 Signed lily flower brooch and matching clip earrings - also signed. My own collection

BJL made many pretty enamel and marcasite brooches and earrings. Looking at the style and findings of many of their pieces - they made jewellery from the 1920s up to the 1960s at least.  Not only the enamel ones but a range of vintage necklaces, brooches, earrings and bracelets.  Some of the jewellery was signed with block lettering BJL on a square plaque. But there are unsigned ones to look for.

This is an unsigned vintage brooch with a hummingbird. (own collection as wing damaged) A brooch in the same colouring was signed BJL found in America

This little enamelled robin brooch is by BJL but is unsigned.

Both of these brooches are from BJL as size, findings same and they appear to match in style.

Which leads me to the infamous vintage lily brooch in enamel and marcasite. Made in numerous colourways. Is this by BJL? The backs are very similar to the ones that are signed BJL. The lily brooches are in both pot metal with a C shaped fastening. Also they are available with rhodium plated backs and with a safety fastening. SO DO YOU HAVE this brooch with a signature? Please share any information.

 

Pot metal with C shaped fastening - my own collection.

Lily enamel and marcasite brooch - with a safety fastening.

Comments appreciated.

Carnival Glass or Iridescent Glass Jewellery

Little is written about the beautiful blue and black jewellery called Carnival or iridescent beads and glass pieces.

Now I call this type of jewellery - carnival. The name came from my mother and her mother, so this is part of my heritage. It is available in blue and black colours mostly and can be found in both antique and vintage necklaces, earrings, brooches, hat pins and bracelets. Also any other jewellery that used beads and glass. Now days the iridescent look is available on plastic beads.

Vintage carnival necklace 42 cm or 18 inches

Samples of "iridescent" jewellery developed from Roman glass that changed colour over time. It is produced by spraying, adding or fuming (a type of smoking pieces) metallic salts onto coloured glass. It then produces an oil on water effect. The colours and intensity depends on the base glass and amount of salts added. It would have looked enchanting by candle light and is still very pretty when reflected by electric lights today

Treble strand vintage carnival or iridescent necklace

It seems to have first come into fashion at the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Probably as a result of the changes in mourning jewellery, when people still wanted a bit of decorum and to retain the black look, but also were starting to crave a bit of colour.

Fenton in the US in around the 1908 period started to use this technique for making pressed glass bowls and glasses. Its popularity increased from the 1900s up to the 1930s, when the cheaply produced decorative bowls, plates, and glasses were prizes at carnivals fairs. Hence where the name "carnival" derived from. The decorative glass was produced in large quantities and in many different colours. The most popular colours for pressed glass were marigold, amethyst and then the much scarcer blue. The popular blue and black glass jewellery was the colours used most and the many other colours are not represented as much. Common sense tells me that it was more expensive to produce the darker colours that light, but I am not a glass making expert?
Then there was a further revival of carnival glass jewellery in the late 1970s to early 1980s and it is still produced today in lesser quantities.

The clear glass jewellery with the "Northern Lights" effect called aurora borealis (AB) was developed in the mid fifties and gained more popularity over the darker carnival jewellery.
Again common sense tells me that aurora borealis was being developed, when the second world war stopped many new innovations. After the war, the trend was for colour - hence the darker and more somber colours were forfeited for the bright cheerful AB effect.

   

 Aurora borealis clip vintage earrings (Sorry already sold)

The jewellery was produced in Bohemia in the late Victorian era. But it was also produced in the UK, USA, Germany, France and many other countries.

 West Germany vintage carnival glass earrings

The dating to the jewellery is made by reviewing the original findings, but also by the feel of the glass. Early samples are much heavier than later ones. They also have a better quality look to them.

 Vintage blue long necklace with carnival glass beads

See also Ornate clasp vintage necklace in blue carnival beads on our website.
               

Costume Jewellery by Judith Miller - a book review

Okay I have gone to to write a review on this book Costume Jewellery by Judith Miller several times, but I am really having difficulty because its one of the worst books on vintage jewellery I have read ever and overall was very disappointing.

The content is available readily on the Internet about the individual designer and so there was nothing new or refreshing to read. Many vintage costume jewellers and historians have very comprehensive and correct factual information available that is free to view. There were also some glaring errors.  

AURORA BOREALIS rhinestones were first made in about 1955. So any jewellery with this is not 1930s/1940s but would be dated from the late 1950s onwards........

With the title "Costume Jewellery" I expected at least some relevant information on UK's vintage costume jewellery. and especially as its been written by someone from the UK. But no the book is also published with the "Costume Jewelry" title aimed at the US market. There is very little written about UK costume jewellery apart from the newer Butler and Wilson and Vivienne Westwood.  Most of the vintage jewellery shown is only obtainable from the US and most is now quite rare and expensive. You also need to be wary of fakes when buying this type of designer pieces.

This is a lily flower brooch in marcasite and enamel. This vintage brooch is available in a wide range of coloured enamel. They were made from the early part of the twentieth century until the 1970s. One size does not fit all. The earlier ones are of pot metal, not rhodium plated and the clasp is very different C shaped not the rollover clasp. So by just showing the front can be very misleading for dating.


Unbelievably the "Unsigned Gems" chapter contained signed vintage jewellery- not sure what that was all about?? It would have been extremely helpful to show the backs of the jewellery and clasps.

Vintage clip-on earrings by Ciro Pearls

The only thing I can say without being terribly rude - is that if you like to look at pretty pictures of jewellery only - then buy this book. But if you are a complete novice and want to actually learn about costume jewellery -  then there are many other good quality books and informative books available., Ones that are well researched and contain excellent information that is correct - the Warman's Series is an excellent place to start.  

 Purple vintage long necklaces

Vintage Wedding Jewellery in clear and white

Today its is very fashionable to wear vintage jewellery on your wedding day. But this is not a new idea. Many moons ago when I married this saying was a popular tradition to follow "Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue"
So vintage wedding jewellery was an easy option to choose for the "something old".

Now days, beautiful vintage style wedding hair pieces can be created out of brooches and necklaces. This replaces the tiaras of Victorian and Edwardian times that were made to break down into smaller pieces of a brooch and a necklace - to wear after the wedding. So you no longer have to have bucket loads of money to add that something special to your wedding.

Another growing idea is to adore your wedding bouquet with brooches and other finery to make it extra special. I love this idea as you can be so creative. It can also be something for the bridesmaids to keep afterwards. Some brides often collect vintage brooches to give as wedding favors to their family and friends. Though I would not recommend buying brooches with missing rhinestones, as its not that easy to replace them. In fact it is something of an art and from memory there just isn't enough time in the day to prepare as it is.

White weddings became popular in Victorian and Edwardian times (due to Queen Victoria herself) and have remained so to today. But many other cultures use more vibrant decoration on their wedding day such as in this blog on Indian wedding jewellery wrote last year.

Not forgetting the groom:)

This is just a small sample of the vintage jewellery available on Jewels and Finery.

Sarah Coventry Vintage Jewelry P12 - 1976

Continuing with the 1976 Spring brochure from Sarah Coventry. This is part 12. Ideal for helping to name and date Sarah Coventry vintage jewelry and to see what else was available in that series.

Page 38 

A = Complete necklace minus tassel from the Emberwood range.
B = Short necklace (20") and tassel.
C = Short necklace and bracelet.
Earrings have a removable dangle and for pierced ears.

Page 39

A = Taste of Honey earrings for pierced ears.
B = Taste of Honey necklace.
C = Taste of Honey earrings (clip)
D = Applause necklace in 28", 35 - 63"

This week we have started to divide the signed vintage jewellery category to different companies, signatures and designers to make viewing easier.

So here are a few of the latest pieces of vintage jewellery added to Jewels and Finery.

Moonflower vintage brooch signed Sarah Coventry

Silvery Sunburst vintage brooch 1960s - 1970s.

And just a couple of old favorites.

Sarah Coventry cufflinks and tie pin in green signed also GB