Old Vintage Sterling Locket

New to my store this week is this old sterling locket. I love lockets- you can never have too many.

Vintage Garne Moon Glow Earrings

I photographed these beautiful signed Garner clip on earrings today. This is what they look like in natural light. Garne is considered rare vintage jewelry and from what is know about the company they were in business for a brief period in the mid forties to possibly the mid 1950's.

Vitnage Micro Mosaic Earrings

Here are some pretty micro mosaic earrings to make up for posting a compact yesterday. Micro mosaic jewelry is really popular with collectors and the more ornate pieces, including picture frames bring in premium prices. I have included a link to the Wikipedia page on micro mosaics because they have a superb example of a Victorian era micro mosaic brooch. Take a look!

Vintage Mosaic Pattern Stratton Compact

I am not going to even pretend I know anything about vintage compacts- but this Stratton compact is lovely. I received this item in a lot of vintage jewelry that I bought for store inventory and thought it was very unique and beautiful.

Vintage Owl Neckalce with Enameled Breast

This owl necklace is really cool- I like how the feathers on his breast have an usual pattern of gold tone metal and enameled portions.

Old Vintage Egyptian Revival Locket

This is a beautiful example of old vintage Egyptian Revival - it features a beautifully painted bust of a Pharaoh on top of an ornate, octagonal sliding locket. Say that seven times fast, while you are trying to say that... I'll be saying "I won't fall in love with the inventory..." over and over. Sigh... I love this piece.

Snowy Enamel Christmas Tree Brooch

Always a favorite around this time of year... the Christmas tree brooch. This enameled beauty is unsigned.

Vintage Florenza Three Strand Cameo Choker

Since I moved the house around- I no longer have access to the same photography area I set up. I generally like to use a lot of natural light for photographing my inventory too. Unfortunately there is not an abundance of natural light during Winters in Wisconsin. As you can see from these pictures I am getting used to my new photography area I have set up. Some of the pictures are coming out too dark and and when I use the flash- it washes them out. I will get it down though. It takes practice to take good close ups of jewelry. Anytime you change a camera or start shooting in a new area with a different lighting, you should expect some time to adjust.

Regardless- this necklace is a signed Florenza gold tone, three strand choker style necklace and it's much better looking in person!

Up All Night... Vintage Owl Necklace with Moonglow Eyes

This weekend I moved bedrooms. The master bedroom which is really pretty is on the bottom floor. We had two of our school age sons sharing that room since we moved here several years ago. My husband and I were on the top floor so we could be with our youngest children and be on the same floor as the nursery. It seemed much safer to not have to walk up and down the stairs in the middle of the night with screaming babies. Needless to the say the top floor of our house is not as pretty- in fact it is butt ugly.

My husband and I have been staying in a room for three years that is green and has purple butterflies on the wall. The previous occupants were two little girls if I recall correctly. If you are wondering why we just didn't paint the walls up there... we only had 3 children when we moved into our new house 3 & 1/2 years ago. Now we have five! Painting during pregnancy and when there are babies in the house is not my to my liking. Now though- our youngest is 1 and I finally feel like a human and less of a cow, so it's time for home improvements.

If you are wondering what this has to do with jewelry it doesn't... it just an explanation as to why the postings are sparse lately. I thought I would pop on here on Sunday and make a quick post, but it took longer then expected to have my two sons situated upstairs with no problems going back to school on Monday. I was up pretty late this weekend- and not online much. I feel like a night owl- kind of like this beautiful vintage owl necklace. Only his eyes are a beautiful moon glow yellow... mine are bulgy and red!

HOOT HOOT!

Vanda Jewelry Cameo Pendant & Ring

Here's a 1972 Christmas advertisement for Vanda Beauty Counselors.

It reads:

Don't Leave Home for Christmas
(We bring Christmas to you).

I am not familiar with Vanda Beauty products but the jewelry looks suspiciously familiar. Look close in the corner you will see a Cameo Perfume Ring for $8.50 and a Floral Cameo Pendant - 24 carat gold plated , contains solid gel perfume $16.00. Now I know why it seems so familiar it reminds me of Avon and their line of solid perfume cameos and pendants.

The Framed Face - Holiday Glamour from 1967

Here's a two page photo spread from the December 1967 Family Circle- which is titled

"THE FRAMED FACE Fashion Close-Ups for Holiday Glamour."

There are a couple of pictures of really nice earrings by Marvella such as the blue drop earrings above and the closeup below. Then on the other hand there is silver lame helmet... what girl doesn't want a silver lame helmet to wear to the office holiday party? Is it you? I won't laugh...

Closeup of the blue drop earrings by Marvella (1967).

THE FRAMED FACE Fashion Close-Ups for Holiday Glamour

Closeup of the silver lame helmet- note the pretty blue chandelier earrings by Marvella to the right.

Black Plastic Flapper Brooch

This brooch is really opulent in person and flashy- you can just imagine the flapper who wore this. I bet she was a really racy gal. I included a video of flapper fashion from the 1920's for your viewing pleasure. In the beginning of the video you can see some really flashy jewelry, there's also some pretty racy burlesque style dancing, and a woman getting her hair bobbed. ENJOY!

Weiss Maragarita Rhinestone Christmas Tree Brooch

This vintage Christmas tree brooch looks sort of plain at first. However, when you look at it closely- the first thing you will notice is the beautiful margarita rhinestones. Margarita rhinestones have the scalloped edges and look sort of like flowers.

This brooch features a couple watermelon colored margarita rhinestones in the bottom row. When the light catches them - WOW. This brooch is signed Weiss and one that vintage Christmas Tree brooch collectors will definitely want in there collection.

Happy Holidays

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving... I tried to get a few posts up before I took some time off from blogging. Looks like I am ready to post some more pictures since I have some new inventory in and have been working on taking pictures.

In the next few days I'll have plenty of Christmas jewelry for you to ohhhh and ahhh at. I will post some non- holiday related items for those who don't do Christmas too.

Tune in.

Senja is modeling vintage cluster beaded earrings from Japan and vintage pop beads.

Vintage Vendome Filigree Bib Necklace

This signed Vendome necklace is amazing looking in person.

Monet Cornucopia Brooch

A little something for Thanksgiving- although I am a little late. This cornucopia brooch from Monet is really detailed and surprisingly very heavy.

1975 Sarah Coventry Love Story Ring

This cute ring is called "Love Story," and it can be found in the 1975 Sarah Coventry catalog. These rings are presumably birth stone or anniversary rings- each featuring two rhinestone hearts with silver tone leaf accents. Depending on your birth or anniversary month you pick the corresponding ring. This particular ring has pink stones and in the catalog it states: October - Rose Zircon.

Octobers birthstone is the opal and the substitute is pink tourmaline, so I suppose Sarah Coventry felt any old pink stone would do. Really- it doesn't matter to me, because the ring is so cute I would wear regardless of having the proper matching birthstones. My birth stone is emerald and I get tired of wearing green- so I wouldn't mind having the whole collection to wear.

Vintage 1940's Eisenberg Peacock Demi Parure

This Eisenberg demi parure is called "Peacock" and dates from 1945 - 1955. It is signed on the back of the huge pendant and the earrings with the large capital "E." The original hang tag has the price of $22.50 on it, which I assume would make it kind of pricey in the late forties. When I first acquired it- I thought it was one of the gaudiest things I had ever seen, since then I have learned to appreciate it more. For the record if you are interested in this piece it sold last week, but I still thought it prudent to get the pictures up for collector's who might comes across these pieces and not know the name of the set.

I Haf A hed COD...

Yesterday I spent all day trying to photograph old adverts for this blog and elsewhere, but no matter what I did their was a glare or some other nonsense which made my pictures complete garbage. So in order to save myself frustration I will just wait to post more vintage jewelry articles and old adverts when I replace my flatbed scanner.

moving on... we have this really boring Sarah Coventry brooch and I am going to back date this yesterday to fill in the day I missed.

Augh- I hate having a head cold!

A Rope of Pearls Continued; a Juliet Cap, a Bib, and a Huge Ring

The two faux jewelry pieces I want to highlight, left to right - a huge ring by Marvella ($3.00 in 1969), a large Bib also by Marvella ($25.00 in 1969) and a Juliet Cap of chain and faux pearls ($45 by Napier 1969).

A Rope of Pearls

Bear with me - I need to replace my scanner, so this image is not the best. It's actually a picture taken of the November 1969 Woman's Day- which reads-

Pearl- masses and masses of them (all fake of course)- are the hottest fashion accessory this fall. Here are eighteen ways to wear them.

I tend to like all the looks on this page except for the one on the right center. That woman looks like she has on a backpack with pearl straps...

Tune in for the other 13 ways to wear fake pearls from 1969!

Vintage Jewerly Terminology: Baroque Pearl

Here's a pair of Sarah Coventry clip on earrings that feature baroque pearls. A baroque pearl is basically just an irregular pearl. Freshwater pearls are often baroque but you will see it in faux pearls set in vintage jewelry as well.

Victorian MOP and Gold Wire Pin

Augusta

Mother of pearl brooches that were personalized with the owner's name such as this one above were popular in Victorian and Edwardian times. However, I have seen some mop name brooches that date from as late as the 1930's early 40's. Typically the gold wire is not karat gold and is usually gold fill. Besides being personalized with names, brooches with "Mother" on them can be commonly found.

Lisner Blue Thermoset Earrings

These clip on earrings are signed Lisner and they are thermoset as well. Thermoset refers to plastics that can not be reheated and molded again. I am partial to moonglow thermosets like those in the previous picture.

Orange Thermoset Necklace and Earrings

Vintage Glass & Metal Bead Necklace

I really like this necklace...

Vintage Made in Japan Red Glass Web Earrings

As you can see I am listing a lot of glass items in my store lately... brooches with glass cabochons, an amethyst glass stick pin, and these. Don't you think these are cool- these are made in Japan vintage screw back earrings? They look like red spider webs and are really unusual. Unfortunately I couldn't get the lighting right when I took these pictures and they look rather orange colored- in person they are a lovely BLOOD RED...

Victorian Amethyst Glass Stick Pin

Vintage Pale Lemon Glass Brooch

Hobe Red Rhinestone & Link Collar Choker

I really could not get the lighting just right to show off how beautiful this red rhinestone Hobe choker is. In person - stunning!