✿ Flowers for sale ✿

 

I stocked the top of the shop with big, colorful flower brooches this afternoon. Just click on the brooches above to link to the listings! All of these date to the late 1930s-early 1940s . They are pot metal plated in rhodium with enamel and rhinestone details. This type of figural floral brooch was very popular at the end of the Art Deco period and into the 1940s. Women's clothing of the 1940s was, all in all, made of sturdier fabric than in previous eras and the jackets, blazers and coats were able to support large, heavy brooches like these. The calla lily brooch is marked for Coro and is a variation on a popular brooch (pictured in a reference guide below).

Little things, big things

I had a lot of fun listing these tiny pins and giant brooches yesterday. Do you have room in your jewelry box for that gorgeous belt slide? Or how about the glowing-green glass pin?

TREFOIL Victorian key pin

NEARER TO THEE Victorian mourning pin

ABSINTHE Edwardian bar pin

NEEDLEPOINT lace pin

KODACHROME Czech glass belt slide

MIGHTY OAK Edwardian faux buckle brooch

Take a star from the sky

After years spent handling, researching, wearing and thinking about beautiful jewelry, I am now accustomed to a certain level of "wow." I don't react to everything all the time - certainly not like I used to when I first started this gig. I guess I am a bit desensitized! That said, there are always things that make me shake my head in amazement. Like this Victorian paste brooch. It looks like someone plucked a star from the sky and put it in a velvet box. I feel this one in my ribs, which means it's really good.

Incidentally, I just stocked a 9 CT and paste ring in the shop this week. She's really pretty.

You can see more extraordinary paste jewelry on this Morning Glory reference page.

Bakelite fruits and veggies

If you follow me on Twitter you probably saw a photo of some bakelite and wood dress clips a little while back. Well, I decided to sell them off-Etsy to a collector in New York (this guy) who maintains a website called The Bakelite Museum among other pursuits. The "museum" portion of the site has one of the best resource collections of bakelite photographs I've seen online. It was the only place where I was able to find examples of pieces similar to mine - carved wood, carved bakelite, "garden" subject. In fact, there is an entire section devoted to fruit and vegetable bakelite figurals. Have you ever seen a bakelite potato? How about beets? Or asparagus? It is worth a visit just to see the asparagus, trust me.

Images courtesy of The Bakelite Museum, ebay and Morning Glory Antiques

The beloved beetle

Why beetle jewelry on the 4th of July? Because you need to have some pre-firework excitement.  I mean, sheeeeez - beetle jewelry is the best. This piece is turn-of-the-century and mounted in 14K gold. It sold for a reasonable $230. The beetle-shaped bezels just kill me.

via Aspire Auctions

Feather your nest

This is my current favorite available in the Erie Basin online shop, a turn of the century 14K gold and coral feather. What an elegant design!

Sextuplets

As you might recall, I have a little *thing* for the combination of brass + colored glass + enamel in antique jewelry. I also get a huge kick out of finding long-lost jewelry mates. These six pins are my pride and joy. I first told you about them two years ago and I've managed to add to the collection since then. Have you seen any other colors? I'm betting there is a red, orange and yellow out there in the world. Here's to hoping I can find them!

P.S. If you like these pins there is one available on Etsy right now.

Halley's Comet jewelry

Looking for something to start collecting? How about Halley's Comet jewelry? Yes, please.

I had no idea this kind of collectible, commemorative jewelry existed until I spotted a curious, tiny pin at my local antique shop. The design seemed unusual to me, with such a large stone set way at the end of a delicate frame. I had never seen anything like it before, not even in my books.

I didn't buy it but I couldn't stop thinking about it. About a week later, while searching for something else online, I came across an Art of Mourning post about comet jewelry. "That's it! That's got to be it!" I thought to myself. As it turns out, Halley's Comet jewelry was quite trendy around the 1835 and 1910 sightings (the 1986 sighting didn't produce anything noteworthy). Victorian and Edwardian jewelers were inspired by the comet and produced a style of pin set with a single stone trailed by a metal "tail."

I immediately went back to buy it. Can you blame me?

Here are two more gorgeous examples from the Morning Glory Victorian information page.

To see all kinds of cool antique comet ephemera, check out this page. To see more Halley's Comet jewelry, visit here.

Brooch sale!

All brooches, pins, clips, etc. are on sale today only! Please use the code PINIT31 at check out for 20% off your selection. There are almost forty pieces to choose from!

Minerva/Athena jewelry

 gold + enamel + diamond Athena brooch                                     gold + enamel + pearl Athena brooch

                        Ebay ||  $1619                                                           Kensington House Antiques || $2950

gold + shell Athena cameo brooch                       gold + hardstone Athena cameo brooch

Ruby Lane || $890                                                     Lang Antiques || $5950

gold + diamonds + enamel Minerva brooch

Adin Fine Antique Jewelry || $3560

 
gold + enamel + gem-set Athena brooch               gold + natural turquoise Athena cameo brooch 

             Skinners Auctioneers & Appraisers || $600                              Era Gem || $2199

 brass + enamel + paint Minerva brooch, in the shop

I got a few questions about the Minerva/Athena brooch I listed a couple weeks ago as part of the Classical Studies Update. Was this a popular style? What other examples of Greco/Roman goddess jewelry existed? Well, I went looking for similar pieces and I found some real beauties. All of these are fine - gold, pearls, diamonds, etc. - depicting the goddess Minerva (or Athena) in a variety of styles, but with certain consistent features. She always has flowing, curly hair. She is always wearing a helmet, topped with a creature of some kind (griffin, dolphin or serpent). And . . . she is always beautiful. She seems to have been a popular subject for enamel brooches and cameos in the late 1800s. My piece is a great example of how costume jewelers imitated fine jewelers, copying popular trends using less expensive materials. Man, I love 1930s-1940s costume jewelry. I just really love it.

Victorian photo pins

I think I might have to start collecting Victorian photo pins, especially the ones with handsome, mustached men in them.  I just listed the pin above in the shop (and here is another dapper fellow from last spring!) I love the enamel accents on this frame. Here are a few more examples of that style from one of my favorite jewelry websites.

   

Images courtesy of Morning Glory Antiques and Jewelry

Three of a kind

Of all the jewelry that tempts me, I find glass pins to be absolutely irresistible. Especially little ones that look like candy. You'll have to pry these three beauties out of my cold, dead hands. And the glass is rose cut to boot! Do you think there might be an orange or green one out there in the world somewhere? I hope so. Just one more reason to love the 1920s . . .

Coat + Brooch = wintertime happiness

Dear Golden Fresh Fern Coat | Jean Jean Vintage Vanilla Sugar Brooch

Adeline's Attic Capelet | Jean Jean Vintage Thackeray Brooch 

Greatest Friend Hunting Jacket | Jean Jean Vintage Twinkle Lights Brooch

Wildfell Hall Hooded Cape | Jean Jean Vintage Miss Bankson Brooch

Adelaide Homesewn Green Plaid Coat | Jean Jean Vintage The Races Pin

If I could put Jean Jean Vintage brooches on some coats stocked by my favorite shopkeepers at the moment, this is how I would do it. I could daydream all day about ways to accessorize the wonderful things in their shops! Text is linked.

Scarab clover

Another amazing piece of jewelry from Erie Basin. This late 1800s brooch is a mix of classic Victorian (clover) and Egyptian Revival (scarabs). And the beetles are so green and beautiful!

Image courtesy of Erie Basin

To market to market

   

 CHERRIES and PINEAPPLE, Trifari 1941

CORNCOB and CHERRIES, Boucher 1941

 

 CURRANTS and PEPPERS, Boucher 1941

 RASPBERRIES and TOMATO, Réja 1941

 STRAWBERRIES and RADISHES, Boucher 1941

I've never actually seen a vintage 1940s fruit or vegetable brooch in person, but when I do you can bet I'll make a big commotion. Especially if I ever find those radishes! It seems that different jewelry companies favored different themes in their novelty brooches during this period - Trifari did a lot of flowers, Coro did a lot of birds, Boucher did a lot of fruit, etc. The insect-themed brooches from this period are especially interesting!

Images taken from American Costume Jewelry Art & Industry, 1935-1950