The Back Side of Vintage Costume Jewelry & Great Reference Books

One of the photos that I include in most of my listings is the back of a piece of jewelry.  The back of the jewelry tells a story and can give you the clues you need when you are trying to figure out the approximate decade when it was produced or was in circulation.  

Weiss Christmas Tree - 1950s

The back of the Weiss Christmas tree above shows you that the brooch was signed on the back on a raised cartouche.  It lets you know that the Weiss stamp was curved in an oval shape and the copyright was under the WEISS name.  The front of the brooch is beautiful and if you follow Weiss, you might immediately recognize the brooch, but you won't know for sure that it is authentic until you see the back. 

Weiss Christmas Tree - 1950s

One of my favorite reference books, now almost 20 years old, is one in a series.  The first book in the series is "Collecting Jewelry 101" by Julia Carroll. I have linked the book below for your review.  The book is quite expensive now because the 2nd Edition was written in 2007.  

The reason, in my opinion, that this book is so valuable is because Carroll emphasizes examining the backs of jewelry pieces and gives visual examples.  

As a retired teacher, I love learning, researching, and expanding my knowledge.  Since my retirement, my focus has been on reselling vintage costume jewelry so I spend lots of time reading all types of materials to learn as much as possible about jewelry.  It is a never ending process but an exciting one.  This book talks about how important it is to review carefully each piece of jewelry.  It was one of the first vintage jewelry reference books I added to my reference collection and after using this book over and over, I purchased the two other books in her series, which follow the title of 101, making them easy to recognize.  For your reference, I have linked them below. 

I purchased the last book in the series, "Collecting Costume Jewelry 303" several years ago and will continue to use it regularly as a reference. You should watch the prices as they change with how many used books are available.  At the time I purchased mine, I paid almost $100 for the last book.  I see at the time of this writing, there are ones available much less expensive. 

The reason her books are so valuable, as I mentioned before, is they show you the back of many of the pieces that were sold during a particular time period.  After you review her books, you start to recognize when a piece was probably made because of the look of the jewelry back. 

This is a piece of Coro jewelry and I have taken a photo of the back and attached it to my listing of this brooch.  You can see in the photograph that the Coro has a little Pegasus in front of the name.  This allows you to date this jewelry.  The addition of the Pegasus with the name Coro puts the jewelry circulation in a time period.  If you could not see the back of the brooch, you would have far less clues to identify the age of this brooch.  

The front of the Coro Pegasus brooch is beautiful but seeing the back of the brooch also helps tell the story that goes with the brooch.  Since the Coro has a Pegasus and a copyright, we place this brooch around 1955. 

If you are studying how to identify when costume jewelry was in circulation, these three books, 101, 202, and 303 by Julia Carroll are ones you will want to purchase and add to your reference library.  I love books but some I use and donate.  These books will stay in my library as I use them as a reference regularly.  

Hope you found this information useful.

Weiss Jewelry - A Vintage Costume Jewelry Company

Before Albert Weiss founded his own costume jewelry company in 1942, he learned the tricks of the trade as a designer for Coro in the 1930's. Weiss excelled at floral and figural brooches and earrings. The company also made numerous styles of bracelets and necklaces. Although Weiss would never get as big as Coro and ceased operations altogether in 1971, business was good enough in the 1950s and ’60s that the company had to contract with Hollycraft to fill its orders. Weiss is perhaps best known for its use of smoky rhinestones. The company was also one of the first to use Swarovski's polychromatic aurora borealis crystals, which were created with Dior in the 1950s. Earrings and pins in its Skyline brand are comparable to those in the Eisenberg Ice line.

The rhinestones in a Weiss piece are strikingly beautiful. The Weiss items are usually signed with a raised oval cartouche with WEISS stamped inside which is on the back of the jewelry and the earrings are usually signed on the clip backs. There are exceptions as many of the Weiss pieces were unsigned due to the hallmark being placed on one item in a set. 

A Small Portion of Our Weiss Collection: Past and Present 

Coro Jewelry

Coro (Corocraft and Vendome) Coro, Inc began operations in 1901.  The US business ended in 1979.  In 1937 Coro began using the name Coro Craft for high end jewelry.  This name is found printed Corocraft, one word, on jewelry produced after World War II. In 1944 Coro began producing jewelry marked Vendome which was named after a city in France. Like Carocraft, Vendome was originally the high end jewelry of Coro.  In the 1950s and 1960s Coro featured carved, molded, and ribbed stones.  All are becoming highly collectible.  This information was shared in Costume Jewelry 101 but Julia Carroll. 

Our Coro Past and Present Collection:  

 

Vintage Laurel Burch Jewelry

Here are a few highlights of the life of designer: Laurel Burch. 

In her 20s, as a single mom, Laurel Burch began making metal from junkyards into jewelry.  She loved many types of designs including cats, mythical animals, colorful flowers, moons, hearts, and people, just to name a few. Laurel Burch designed paintings and had the designs made into earrings.   

On her website, she described herself like this: “I live within the vivid colors of my imagination ... soaring with rainbow feathered birds, racing the desert winds on horseback, wrapped in ancient tribal jewels, dancing with mythical tigers in steamy jungles.”

Having never taken an art class, she discovered cloisonné work from a visit to China in 1971.  Cloisonné is the technique of taking large areas of enamel and dividing them into specific areas of brightly colored enamel.  She began Laurel Burch Inc. in 1979.

Laurel Burch passed away on Sept. 13, 2007 in her home in Novato, CA. from a bone disease called osteopetrosis in which she had over 100 bone fractures.  In spite of her illness, she was an amazing artist and continued working and creating her art as she battled fractures within her body. She died at age 61.

In addition to loving her artwork, Laurel Burch must be admired greatly for working through her pain to give the world so much joy!

Laurel Burch: Our Past & Present Collection

Our Collection - Past & Present

Laurel Burch Cats: Domestic and Wild

  

  

   

 

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Laurel Burch Birds

 

 

  

 

  

  

   

 

Laurel Burch Misc. Animals

 

 

  

Laurel Burch People 

  

 

Laurel Burch Flowers

  

 

 

  

  

Laurel Burch Misc. Designs

 

 

  

We have a large inventory of Laurel Burch since we have been collecting her jewelry since the 1980s.  It is one of our largest sellers so many of the items on this list may have been sold but we add more products often. We love her vintage jewelry due to the gold, silver, or rhodium plated finish. Most of her ear wires are gold filled or silver plated. We would love for you to stop by and take a look. 

Jen and Ida 

UncoveringVintage.com