Jewelry Design Art

Morning Glory Antiques & Jewelry
presents
~

JEWEL CHAT
Costume Jewelry Reference

Jewelry
Design Art

Some jewelry designers first developed their ideas on
paper, thereby using material that was meant to be temporary. Because of that, we
are fortunate to have any of these miniature art works remaining. They
demonstrate the development of a piece of jewelry from an original idea to the finished product, and lend
insight into the creative process.

The art work and designs
on paper shown below are from the DeRosa, Haskell, Barclay and other companies. Some show
actual jewelry made from each design, and others show jewelry that
is similar or in the same style or era.

BARCLAY brooch
of green
enameled leaves, red enameled ladybug and clear rhinestone pave pods, 3-5/8"
by 3", Barclay by Rice-Weiner Alvin and Robert Rice, Louis Mark, circa
1950, Rhode Island. This brooch comes with the BARCLAY
original design art work for this brooch. It is interesting to see that the
original idea was for the pods to be green enamel, but in the finished
brooch leaves are green instead. The process of jewelry design is
documented here. To see more jewelry design art work, click
HERE.
View
#X23718

BARCLAY
original art work
for a fawn brooch.

BARCLAY
art work for a brooch design. It’s not the brooch at the right, but it is
similar.

FLOWER
3-1/3"
brooch in gold tone with green enameled leaves and glass ball stamen. View
#Y21843

GOLD TONE leaf with silver
tone accents and clear and red rhinestone flowers, a large 4" brooch.
View #Y23339

BARCLAY
art work for a brooch, earrings and rings designs.

BARCLAY art work for a brooch design.

BARCLAY art work for a
brooch, earrings and rings designs.

UNSIGNED large purple and clear rhinestones brooch, 3-1/2".
View #Y22107

De Rosa design for a fur
clip.

De
Rosa 2-1/8" fur clip with aqua rhinestone center. View
View
#d19070

CORO
green emerald-cut and clear rhinestones fur clip in gold tone, 2".
View #C23602

BARCLAY art work for a brooch design.

Clip marked only "sterling".
Courtesy of Deborah Kosnett

BARCLAY art work for a brooch design.

CLEAR
rhinestones 1-1/2" retro style pin set in silver tone. It also
has a loop on the back so that it can be worn as a pendant.
View #Y21751

BARCLAY art work for a brooch design.

BARCLAY art work for a brooch, earrings and rings designs.

.

BARCLAY design art work for a
ring.

De Rosa design for a fur
clip.

RETRO rose gold plated pin with pink and blue rhinestones, 2-1/4″. View
#Y22999

De Rosa design for a fur
clip.

BARCLAY art
work for a ring design.

The real but unsigned De Rosa
brooch made from the design at left. #d20435

The De Rosa original art work design
for the bird brooch shown at the right. #174

DeROSA arrowroot
floral clip.
View
#d21160

De Rosa Arrowroot design art work for the clip shown at left.
#146

YELLOW flower bouquet with green centers and a white bow at the bottom.

View I wonder if this could be for the DeRosa fur clip shown at the
right here?

DEROSA large lily bouquet fur clip with creamy lavender and purple
enameling and purple and clear rhinestones in a gold plated setting. It is
one of their larger clips at 4" by 2-1/4", and it is "as is" with some very
small chips in the enamel on two petals. It is signed "R DeRosa" on the back
and it was made in the 1940s, still very lovely today.

View

View

View

View

View #d41992

BARCLAY art work
for a brooch design of ribbons and flowers.

BARCLAY art work for a bow brooch
design.

.

DEROSA retro
purple rhinestone and artificial pearl brooch, 2" by 2-3/4".
View #d23931

DeRosa design art work.
Marked in pencil "Done 3-13-44" #230

RETRO
aqua-blue rhinestone clip, 2-1/8".
View
View #Y8143

I always enjoy finding
original vintage design art work for the costume jewelry we love. The two
mermaid pages here came to me recently, but the seller did not know what
jewelry company had used them, if any. They are all originals painted
by hand on a crisp tissue paper.

Some are very
similar to DeRosa pieces, and I wish I knew for sure.

I had hoped these were from the DeRosa
Company, but I am not at all sure. They are not
drawn like the ones in the collection of DeRosa design art work I already have, seen

HERE, and I don’t recognize that any of these designs were made into
jewelry. They could have been done to submit to DeRosa by an outside
designer, but so far. I do not know.

I continually do research about DeRosa jewelry and
appreciate any new information.

MERMAID admiring herself in her mirror as she sits atop waves and bubbles and next to
a starfish.

View

If you do see jewelry made from these designs, I would so grateful if you could
show it to me or tell me about it and who made it.

MERMAID or merman blowing a horn as he rides the waves.

View

FEATHERS in yellow and pink. I am not sure which way up this was
supposed to be worn.

View

THREE red coiled flowers and green enameled leaves.

View

BLOOM with green oval rhinestones and pink enameling on a gold plated setting.

View

FEATHERS in blue and yellow with what looks like clear baguettes.

RED and white rhinestone flowers.

PURPLE rectangular stones bracelet design with green and gold leaves and
little red berries,

View

SWIRLING Jack-in-the-Pulpit flower design with beads and baguettes.

LARGE faceted clear oval center rhinestone and green accent stones with pink enameling.

BLUE marquis rhinestones, round red feature stone and lots of clear baguettes.

View

BLUE enamel with clear rhinestones like stars scattered on it, gold plated
scrolls and a colorful spray of stones at the bottom.

View

Jewelry
Advertising Art

Some jewelry makers also used artists’ renderings of finished
jewelry as advertisements in stores and publications. The Miriam Haskell
original watercolors shown here were hung in shops and distributed to buyers
at department stores. Most of these are thought to have been painted by
Larry Austin, an illustrator about whom little is known other than this
wonderful work.

HASKELL early unsigned aqua glass bead and
artificial pearl dress clips, set of 2. (See "Miriam Haskell Jewelry"
by Gordon & Pamfiloff, page 160.) View
#Y23940

HASKELL
Larry Austin original watercolor advertising illustration for Haskell
bracelet and clips/necklace, lady in furs, written in pencil on the
back #1160. #H27270

HASKELL early unsigned
aqua glass bead and artificial pearls on fabric metal coil bracelet, circa
1940, 1/2" thick each, side motif 2-1/2". (See "Miriam
Haskell Jewelry" by Gordon & Pamfiloff, page 160.)
View #H26809

Entire group of
HASKELL blue glass bracelets and clips.
View
See Gordon & Pamfiloff’s "Miriam Haskell Jewelry" page 31.

HASKELL
Hess dress clips with glass pearls, aqua and cranberry transparent glass beads
set in antiqued silver tone flowers with clear rhinestone accents, set of two
pieces circa 1940, 2-1/2" each. More pieces of this set and the art work that
illustrates it can be seen in Cera’s book "Jewels of Miriam Haskell" on page
90-91. These can also be seen in "Miriam Haskell Jewelry" by Gordon & Pamfiloff,
page 137 and the advertising art work for it on page 94.
View
View
#H36493

In November 2004, Brenda, a long-time jewelry dealer and collector, wrote:
My husband and I are just back from at trip to New York City. We had the
opportunity to see two fabulous jewelry shows in progress at the
American Folk Art Museum. Both are of fine jewelry.

The first show we saw was "Seaman Schepps – A Century of New York
Jewelry Design." Much of this jewelry was designed from the early
1930s to the late 1950s. He catered to a celebrity clientele from
Hollywood to royalty. The jewelry was often pictured in glamorous photos
in old Vogue magazines.
Over and over, I saw how fine jewelry was the direct inspiration for our
vintage costume jewelry, particularly in Trifari, Coro and even K.J.L.
I had to keep reminding myself that what I was looking at was REAL, as I
have almost line for line copies in vintage costume jewelry. I realized
that my beloved Lucite jelly bellies were copied from figurals
originally done in gold and rock crystal. One example is the
Trifari jelly belly bird brooch, shown at right.

The second show (right across the street) was "Masterpieces of
American Jewelry". These fine jewels were by the best of the best –
Tiffany, Cartier, etc. Tiffany did a series of enamel and diamond
orchid brooches in the 1890s, and Coro mimicked them in the enamel and
rhinestone orchid pins done in the 1940s, like the one shown at left.