Imagine stopping at a fantasy flea market and magically finding a long table packed with beautiful costume jewelry. Some of the pieces are vintage, some are not. Some of the pieces are signed by makers, some are not. As you admire the display of jewelry a crowd of shoppers starts to gather. They see the glitter and anticipate some bargains as they descend on the table. You know you only have a few precious minutes to select some pieces for yourself. There is no time to inspect for prominent signatures. There is no time to thoroughly examine each piece for damage. You must quickly find the best pieces only from viewing the quality of the overall design.
An experienced collector could easily walk away with a beautiful, profitable pile of jewelry. They do this by scanning the table looking at the designs. First, they look for distinctive designs associated with prominent brands. For example, a 1960s Schreiner ruffle pin would be instantly recognized as an iconic Schreiner design and quickly scooped off the table into the experienced collector’s pile of treasures. Next, the experienced collector uses their experienced jewelry “eye” to scan the table for high-end designs that are well-made and pleasing to the eye but may not be immediately recognizable. These pieces exhibit high-end design traits including great use of color, expensive stones, vintage enameling, and quality hardware. The quality of the overall design tells the experienced collector that these designs are worth a closer look.
Very quickly an experienced collector builds a pile of treasures. The collector then takes the time to individually examine the selected jewelry, eliminates jewelry with hidden damage, and negotiates a group price with the seller for the remaining, expertly curated, designs.
The focus of this book is to help beginning and intermediate costume jewelry collectors train their “jewelry eye” to recognize and appreciate great jewelry designs. By studying the basics of jewelry design presented in Chapter One, a new collector can accelerate the maturity of their jewelry “eye”. It breaks down complex jewelry design elements into fun little packets of information, with clear illustrations, to help a novice collector quickly learn to recognize the six basic elements of design: Shape, Line, Color, Contrast, Visual Weight, and Balance.
Chapter Two reinforces the development of a refined jewelry “eye” with examples of jewelry from well-known vintage brands that illustrate one or more of the design elements presented in Chapter One. These brands have achieved a place in jewelry history and in the hearts of collectors. To truly understand the qualities of great design, it is essential to study the designs of the past.
Experienced collectors sometimes long to travel back in time and be able to acquire these wonderful vintage designs while they were new. Imagine walking into a 1940s boutique and purchasing Marcel Boucher’s enameled designs and then returning to the present with your treasures. Of course, this is not possible. However, it is possible for a collector with an experienced “eye” for great design to shop for contemporary jewelry designs. Who knows? Fifty, sixty, seventy, or eighty years from now there may be collectors longing to travel back to today to purchase great designs.
For fun Chapters Three and Four investigates this idea. It features examples of contemporary jewelry brands selected for study due to the interesting, distinctive designs. Each brand selected has something special to offer in terms of design. Can a collector today, by studying contemporary jewelry brands in this way, determine future collectables? Only time will answer that question, but it is fun and interesting to think about the future of collecting costume jewelry and a wonderful exercise in applying and recognizing quality design traits.