Antique Costume Jewelry

All that glitters may not be gold, but collecting costume jewelry certainly is addictive - This page is your guide to collecting Costume Jewelry! Click here for tips on cleaning costume jewelry.

Collectors already familiar with this area and don't feel they need to refresh, may prefer to learn how to invest in Antique Costume Jewelry.

Investors needing to brush up on identification by designer, will find Identifying Costume Jewelry filled with identification tips.

Ready to get started then? There are basically two categories of Costume Jewelry:

Antique Costume Jewelry, is a 20th century term for jewelry made from non-precious materials such as imitation gemstones and faux pearls, set in silver or inexpensive base materials.

Early Costume Jewelry however, goes back thousands of years, and was produced in large quantities to go with each new season's fashions.

As the 18th century got underway a thriving costume jewelry trade developed in Europe as faux jewelry was becoming increasingly desirable.

This style of jewelry is also referred to as Cocktail Jewelry, Retro Modern and Vintage Jewelry.

Vintage Bridal Costume jewelry and rhinestone costume jewelry is nowadays snapped up faster than you can bling.

Most is unsigned and was never intended to represent a financial investment. That was then, NOW, Costume Jewelry is just as beautiful as its precious sister counterpart and is considered highly collectible.

What is so exciting for those of us, dazzled by "bling" is that costume jewelry was meant to be affordable and was therefore produced in large quantities, so there's no shortage; there is plenty of it to go round, such as costume jewelry pins and costume jewelry brooches just waiting for the savvy Antique Jewelry Investor to discover.

Plus, big costume jewelry is so, well, fashionable, and will lend glamour to any occasion, always attracting compliments and admiring glances. It never "dates" or goes out of fashion.

A descendant of the Art Deco period, her majesty, "Artistry Of Haute Couture Costume Jewelry",Coco Chanel, once said:

"Nothing looks more like a fake jewel than a beautiful jewel. Why get mesmerized by a beautiful stone? One might as well wear a cheque around one's neck."

Typical Chanel, as bold in her statements as her fashions and her now VERY collectible Chanel Costume Jewelry.

Unsigned antique vintage costume jewelry is just as collectible, simply because they are wonderful works of art to look at - not just because they have a famous name stamped on the back.

Costume Jewelry Investors may indulge themselves with many different themes.

Some collectors are faithful to a favorite designer,while others may tailor their collections around things found in nature such as, flowers, fruit, birds, beasts and even bugs!

Antique Costume Jewelry and signed Designer Costume jewelry are full of life; stylish, trendy jewelry that's fashionable today however fakes are common!

Investor Antique Costume Jewelry Tips

Forgeries are common at the upper end of the market. Trifari's jelly belly pins and Eisenberg Originals have been widely forged and often have a fake maker's mark. If you're a budding collector, it will be prudent to buy pieces in the mid and lower price ranges, to avoid expensive mistakes.

"Yesterday's elegant-formalwear-turned-dated-eyesore" is today's "must-have" accessory.

If you need proof, of just how desirable antique costume jewelry is, just check out the costume jewelry adorning today's Hollywood celebrities and royalty too!

Personal ornamentation comprised of non-precious materials may possibly need unique storage requirements because it's often on the "largish" side.

Antique Jewelry Investor has several pages devoted to Jewelry storage, which is packed with useful tips on where and how to store your larger pieces, which can be a bit of problem.

It helps when buying, to think of Antique Costume Jewelry as 'a bulkier form of Art Deco'.

Instead of diamonds, rubies and sapphires set in silver or gold, early costume jewelry designers used bakelite, brass and other alloys, celluloid, enamel, horn, paint, paper, rubber, textiles and wood.

Inside the art movements of the 1920s ‘material snobbism’ was tossed aside by young designers who rejected imitating expensive authentic jewelry and worked hard to make ‘fake jewelry’ acceptable.

Look out for sumptuous vintage costume jewelry in good condition and the ever popular, red costume jewelry is always in high demand.

Silver costume jewelry, is making a big come-back and well worth investigating.

Don't be afraid to ask questions before you purchase antique vintage costume jewellery.

If the jewelry is signed, so much the better, it will fall into Designer Costume Jewelry category.

Both signed designer costume and unsigned costume jewelry are both just as collectible.

Cocktail Jewelry was made to show off in, to wear at the new cocktail hour that had taken off in the 1920s in Europe.

Bubbly and bold, women could dazzle away the evening with their fantastic jewels and glamorous evening wear.

Jewelry design of the 1930s was sleek, slim (1930s), architectural, and hard.

Major influences were cubism and futurism.

Early Antique Costume Jewels of the 1930s will appear geometric looking, like heavier versions of Art Deco Jewelry.

Royalty no longer held sway over the image of the women so much as the Hollywood movie stars such as Rita Hayworth and Veronica Lake.

Antique Costume jewels are full of life and strength and it thrived in the 1930s and 1940s when the right kind of jewels to go with that evening cocktail dress demanded luxurious costume jewels. Fake and sumptuous, they were well made and still quite expensive.

If you discover a piece of jewelry with gold work perforated with patterns either of little hexagons (a Van Clef & Arpels speciality) or overlapping semi circles like slinky scales you are looking at typical Gold Work of the period on your piece of Antique Costume Jewelry.

Keep your eye out for bows and knots of all descriptions, they were an essential motif forming the main motif or tied around the centre of a costume brooch forcing simple flower-heads into splaying fan shapes each side.

Bracelets were chunky with mechanical motifs, and some of the most beautiful were made only of gold, or colored gold in angular or chevron shaped links.

For the ultimate in luxury watches have a look at the cocktail wristwatches or 'montres bracelets' that were then popular. Often with a flexible gold band they were set with a huge central gem set surrounding the watch face.

Square cut rubies and sapphires were used or the little gems set in star settings. These innovative luxury watches were made in Switzerland, by leading watch manufacturers, Rolex, Baume-Mercier, Piaget, Patek Philippe, and Gubelin of Lucerne.

Dress clips was a 1940s phenomenon. They could be worn separately or fitted together as a brooch.

Cartoon like animals, rigid gold figures of scarecrows, clowns, ballerinas all set with tiny colored gems gradually crept into Antique Costume Jewelry design.

Have You Seen the Jewel-of-the-Month Yet?

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