RAPAPORT... Ask estate jewelry people to define the style of the fifties and you’ll find there isn’t one easy answer. Like any decade, the span of ten years saw a variety of trends come to the fore. Some cite the Paris high-style jewelry of Sterle and Schlumberger; others reference the beginning of the Studio artists and American Modernists like Ed Wiener and Calder coming in. But there is one adjective that comes up time and time again when describing fifties jewelry in America — glamour. And hand-in-hand with glamour go diamonds and glittering gemstones.
A Decade of Diamonds“My take on the fifties is more the Harry Winston decade. It was diamonds, diamonds, diamonds,” says Malcolm Logan, one of the owners of Nelson Rarities, Portland, Maine, pointing out the “platinum wirework that was very prevalent” and the “icy blue” look of the Winston jewels. “This was the era of the classic diamond cocktail ring — a pearl in the center surrounded by marquise diamonds in a platinum wirework design,” Logan continues. “And diamond flexible bracelets with pear shapes, baguettes and rounds, and marquises were also popular. Also de rigueur for high fashion was a small diamond watch.”
Suzanne Martinez, buyer, Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry, San Francisco, California, concurs. “Marquise diamonds came back into fashion. And baguettes, lots of baguettes. Ballerina rings with skirts of baguettes started being made in white metal.”
Diamonds were definitely used, agrees Evelyn Kay, Evelyn Kay Antique and Estate Jewelry, Aventura,Florida. Moving from the ruby and sapphire era, she says, the fifties saw diamonds being used. Engagement rings were smaller than today, she points out, and “they were using engagement ring sets, which are back in fashion. When they got engaged, they would buy the wedding band that matched.”
Also in vogue, according to Lisa M. Stockhammer, president of The Three Graces.com, an online retailer of antique and vintage jewelry, were “suites of beautiful sapphires and diamonds.” And diamonds were paired with turquoise or rubies, “or whatever to add color,” she says. “And often you find arches or swirls, bows, ribbons and swags of gems were part of many designs in a very abstract or stylized manner.”
Big, Bold And Gold“The glam jewelry is heavily diamond and color,” agrees Kimberley Thompson, estate buyer, JB Hudson Jewelers, Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Big color centers with diamonds around them. Paul Flato was really huge with the Hollywood crowd. He had actresses who wore only his jewelry. He did big, bold, explosive pieces of color.”
Another hallmark of the decade was yellow gold jewelry, a changeover, says Kay, from the war period “when pink gold was very big.” Agrees Stockhammer, “there was a lot of yellow gold jewelry going on” and “textured metals were very big, with matte finishes.”
“A lot of animal figures were done in gold,” adds Martinez, “a lot of twisted wire things were done. And Tiffany did a lot of flowers, birds and animals in gold.” And there was a lighter side of the fifties, Stockhammer notes. “You also start to see a lot of fun, whimsical jewelry, like birds encrusted with turquoise and gems, and cat and dog pins.”
There were also, Stockhammer says, “little delicate, flowery things. A lot of simple shapes, but articulated. Clip earrings — not a lot of long dangle earrings but a lot of earrings worn up on the ear. Necklaces were very prominent — higher up on the neck. You found a lot of suites of jewelry in the fifties, a lot of matchy-matchy — earrings, necklace and bracelet, or brooch, earrings and necklace.”
Along with rings, brooches were very big, says Kay, because women wore them on their suits and dresses. Fifties’ ladies’ dress watches, adds Thompson, were “encrusted with diamonds.” But their functuality, says Martinez, left a lot to be desired. “The dials are so small, they are very hard to read.”
Lasting Appeal? Signed pieces are always sought after by collectors and fifties jewelry has the cachet of most of the big names, including, saysThompson, “Tiffany, Van Cleef, Cartier, Verdura, Suzanne Belperron, Raymond Yard.” Still, demand for fifties’ jewelry isn’t as huge yet as it is for other periods, points out Martinez. It may be, she says, because “we’re still very close to the fifties and it hasn’t been so long that we’re not still making some of the jewelry that was made at that time.” But, she says, “We do sell it, the yellow gold necklaces, bracelets, earrings, the easily wearable daytime jewelry.”
“I can’t say there’s been a huge push toward 1950s jewelry as a trend,” says Merle Koblenz, Koblenz & Co. Estate Jewelry, Kent, Connecticut, “but it does sell. Big stones are certainly back in. It’s not like people rush to my booth at the antiques show saying, ‘What do you have in fifties’ jewelry?’ But they do see it among the other things and I do sell it.”
For Thompson, the era’s use of color is something she looks for. “I’m always looking for things that have big color and not necessarily emerald, diamond, ruby. I’m talking about gorgeous aquas, wonderful peridots. Big pieces that really show the best of that time period. Singular cocktail rings that have a big single stone with just a few diamonds tracing down the shank. I always look for the big bracelets; big, bold, chunky bracelets, because those are always in, no matter what. And you can wear them with blue jeans. They’re not too-dainty little things that look like they have to be worn at a formal event.”
“Most people come in just vaguely looking for something old, vintage or antique,” Thompson goes on to say. “They want something different. But then when they start seeing things laid out, you’d be surprised at the pull of the fifties for people.”
One reason, she notes is that “ You see a lot of fifties’ inspiration in fashion. You see a lot of the short jackets; you see the Hollywood trousers, you see the sheer blouses with all the pleating on them. You really have that forties, fifties and sixties feel in fashion right now and jewelry goes hand in hand with that.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - November 2008. To subscribe click here.