As soon as I gathered up the items I had just bought at auction, one of the regulars came up to me. “Did you get the jewelry?” she asked.
My bounty included some sewing items in a small tin and rusty button hooks on a dinner plate. I normally move stuff around in boxes or containers to see what’s hidden underneath in my walk-throughs before the auction starts, but I didn’t recall seeing any jewelry.
No, I didn’t, I said to her. She is a dealer who buys a lot of costume jewelry so it wasn’t
unusual for her to have spotted some among all the stuff on the tables and forgotten exactly where she saw it. That happens to me all the time, so I try to write down precisely where I had seen an item.
At home, when I started removing stuff from the containers, I did find some jewelry. It was a necklace that looked to be brass with gold leafing. It had three small but sturdy glass flowers with a faux pearl in the center and leaves. One of the flowers had fallen off its base, and there was some corrosion on the brass. It needed a good cleaning. (Click on photo above for a fuller view.)
Otherwise, it was a nice piece of costume jewelry. I wondered if that was the piece she had seen.
I don’t buy much costume jewelry because it just doesn’t interest me. I’ve acquired a few pieces as part of box lots, but I didn’t hang on to them very long. I did keep a pair of vintage earrings with amber or butterscotch stones that I just loved. They were marked sterling but had the patina of brass. I also buy stick pins and hat pins – which I suppose would be considered jewelry.
My necklace had no markings so I’m not sure who made it or how old it was. There’s nothing special about it, but that’s not true of all such jewelry. Some baring the markings of named designers can be both expensive and collectible. I’ve seen many Antiques Roadshows where someone brought in costume jewelry that was appraised for prices that rivaled the real stuff.
I came across a website that offered information on designers, companies and markings. If I actually wanted to date the piece, another site suggested that I consider the following: color and cut of stones, type of clasp and hinge and the type of material the setting is made of.
Several sites noted that costume jewelry reflected the era and tastes of the times (hat pins were popular during the Victorian era for those huge hats that women wore), and apparently, it still does.
At flea markets, that’s one of the first questions I get from women buyers: “Do you have any jewelry?” Most times, I say no, but maybe this time – after cleaning the necklace and re-affixing the flower – I’ll have at least one piece to offer.
I just hope it’s what she’s looking for, especially since our tastes in jewelry are all so different.
