Vintage Jewelry Resource Books - Which ones are right for you?

If you are going to collect vintage jewelry and have an eye on the investment value of the piece, then you may want to consider also investing in some vintage jewelry resource books. But with so many of them available how are you supposed to know which ones are most worth investing in?

I have a large number of them in my personal library and find that there are a few that I use most of the time, so I will outline the ones I find most useful for identification, information, and pricing. I will discuss a few general resource books and some that are designer specific.

1. Costume Jewelry 101 - The Basics of Starting, Building and Upgrading by Julia C. Carroll.

This is a personal favorite of mine and one to have if you are just starting to collect vintage jewelry. It gives a great introduction to the subject, outlines how and when to buy and gives very good overviews of four good designers for beginners. The book also outlines other designers in less detail. Photos are very good and the book also gives an idea of retail values.

2. Costume Jewelry 202 - The Basics of Dating Jewelry 1935 - 1980.

This is a follow up book to the one above and is for more advanced collectors. The book talks about 6 methods for dating jewelry and has patent numbers and patent design photos to help with the identification process. Lovely photos, retail prices and some examples of early vintage jewelry advertisements.

3. Unsigned Beauties of Costume Jewelry by Marcia "Sparkles" Brown.

This is a collector favorite! - This book has many photos of jewelry of various kinds. The price guide is reasonable but she does not take into account unsigned pieces that are known to be from certain manufactures which results in an under pricing for some of the items featured in the book.

3. Signed Beauties of Costume Jewelry (Volume I and also Volume II) by Marcia "Sparkles" Brown.

Each of the two volumes features different designers, so they compliment each other very well. The guide talks about each of the featured designers in great detail and outlines the markings used by them as well as design characteristics, although no pictures of the makers marks are shown. Wonderful pictures and suggested retail values are included.

4. Emmons and Sarah Coventry Jewelry Fashion Show - Deborah A. Robinson.

The book for collectors of Sarah Coventry Jewelry. I have several reference books for her pieces, and this one is the most complete, in my opinion. A huge number of her pieces are featured, with names of the designs, years of manufacture and suggested retail prices which are very accurate. Emmons jewelry is also featured to a lesser degree.

5. Copper Art Jewelry, A Different Luster - Matthew L. Burkholz and Linda Lichtenberg Kaplan

Fabulous book for collectors of copper vintage jewelry. Mainly discusses the work of Rebajes and Renoir/Matisse Renoir but also has a chapter on other signed and unsigned pieces of the period. No values, but clear photos with great detail. The book has a two page spread of design photos which gives the name to some of the Renoir piece, although not all.

6. Miriam Haskell Jewelry - Cathy Gordon and Sheila Damfiloff

The resource book for collectors of Miriam Haskell jewelry. It contains over 600 color photographs which are categorized design techniques. Both signed and unsigned pieces are included, and the book has very clear detailed photos of the back of the pieces to help with the identification process. Also includes retail prices.

7. The Art of Juliana Jewelry - Katerina Musetti

All Juliana pieces are unsigned and are identified by design techniques, so if you plan to collect Juliana jewelry, this book is a must. The book contains over 400 color photograph of Juliana jewelry made between 1947 and the 1990s. The first part of the book has chapters devoted to each style of jewelry made with clear photos of clasps, pin backs, stone settings etc. Retail prices are also included.

There are many other books which give a wealth of information, but these should get you started and will give you a good overview of information you will need in your vintage jewelry search.

My Juliana Demi Parure and Earrings are Verified!

Those of you who follow my blog know that I often submit jewelry pieces that I believe may be DeLizza & Elster Juliana designs. Juliana Jewelry was not marked on the pieces. They only had paper hang tags which were often discarded.

I recently submitted four pieces - a parure and three pairs of earrings. Two of the earring pairs are still in the verification process, but the demi parure and one pair of earrings have been verified. I am delighted, to say the least.

The demi features a stunning combination of dark blue navette rhinestones and meridian blue aurora borealis stones. All prong set with open backs in a silvertone setting. It is to die for - particularly since I adore blue jewelry, which is my favorite color.

The earrings are no less impressive. They feature interesting hand painted milk glass stones and tabac aurora borealis rhinestones in a goldtone setting. Very layered design with open back settings which are typical of the Juliana design.

You can view the two verified Juliana jewelry items on my Vintage Jewelry Lane website. The set is $125.99 and the earrings are $45.99.

If you would like to view the verification page for the two pieces, the D & E Juliana earrings are on this page - (#63 and #64), and the D & E Juliana rhinestone set is featured here - (#196 and #197).

Let's hope I have as much luck with my other two pairs of earrings. Fingers crossed!

Juliana Jewelry - Verifications are in!

In a later blog post, I will be doing an article about Juliana Jewelry - one of the most collectible designer brands of vintage jewelry. The problem with Juliana is that the pieces were never hallmarked - they only had paper tags which were often discarded.

If you look on ebay, you will find hundreds of pieces of jewelry described every day, for sale as authentic Juliana, which are not genuinely those of this designer. So what is a collector to do?

There is a wonderful site which accepts photo submissions of pictures of pieces that the sender wants to verify. The site them submits them to Mr. DeLizza, who was one of the original founders of DeLizza and Elster who made Juliana Jewelry. Mr Delizza either verifies or denies the authenticity of the piece. Each verification process is done in an album, and then the results are announced. Last month I submitted these earrings for verification. They have many of the Juliana design techniques, so I was hopeful they were genuine.

I will never list an item as Juliana unless it has been verified, or unless it has the design techniques which make it unmistakably Juliana. I find some jewelry types easy to identify - some types of bracelets and earrings are had to miss. But, I find that earrings are very hard to identify, so I recently submitted a pair for verification. Alas - they were not.

The latest verification page is in - you will find Juliana Verification album 13 here. My earrings are #55 and are labeled as not D & E. Never fear though - I have four more pieces, including three pairs of earrings and a set that I am going to submit soon.

The site asks that you do research about Juliana before you submit an item for verification. There are some specific design techniques that should be part of the piece submitted. I'll go into all these later and will also give you the submission procedure at that time. In the meantime, enjoy the verified pieces in the album 13. You will be able to see why Juliana jewelry is so desireable and highly collectible.

Collecting Vintage Jewelry - Part 5 - Metal Settings

Today's post will continue our series devoted to various aspects to consider when putting together a vintage jewelry collection. In the last chapter we talked about the creative use of stones. Today we will discuss the various types of settings used.

At the top of the list is a rhodium plated setting. It was extensively used by the better jewelry designers. Rhodium is a hard metal in the platinum group and it wears extremely well. Two well known designers who used platinum settings often are B. David, and Sarah Coventry. As you can see from the picture to the right, a rhodium setting is smooth and every even. It has a luster to it that normal silvertone settings doesn't have and it doesn't tarnish over time and is very corrosion resistant.

Open back settings for rhinestone jewelry are also found on better vintage jewelry pieces. The most famous designer of this type of setting is DeLizza and Elster who made the famous Juliana Jewelry. (you can view some verified Juliana jewelry pieces at The DeLizza & Elster Jewelry Education Site. Most open back settings also use high quality unfoiled glass rhinestones, although I have seen foiled pieces in openback settings too.

Riveted back settings were used extensively during the 1950s -1960s. In this setting, a small rivet is visible on the back of each of the cups that hold the rhinestones. Many designers used this setting, but pieces from Austria are often made with this design technique.

V Clasps were also another design technique often used during the 1950s. The back of this early vintage brooch uses both the riveted back setting and an early V Clasp.

There is a special type of rhinestone setting that I particularly like. It is found on many pieces from Austria. This special cup setting has crimped edges which are somewhat flayed around the edges. A version of this is called the pie crust setting for the similarity to a pie crust in baking.

Filigree settings were very popular with many vintage jewelry designers. They have had a resurgence with some newer designers such as 1928, but the older settings are notable because the beads and pearls were often wired onto these filigree settings. Japan and Germany used filigree settings often, but the most notable designer who used them extensively is Miriam Haskell. The quality of a Haskell piece is unmistakable and a staple of any top quality vintage jewelry collection.

Previous blog posts in this series:

1. Collecting Vintage Jewelry - Where do I start?

2. Collecting Vintage Jewelry - What is the condition?
3. Collecting Vintage Jewelry - Type of Stone settings.

4. Collecting Vintage Jewelry - The Creative Use of Stones.

Check back soon for the next chapter in this series which will deal with clasp types used on vintage jewelry.