The Hobé (Hoe-Bay) Company was founded in Paris in 1887 by master craftsman Jacques Hobé. He was a jeweler to the French court who created affordable jewelry using fine jewelry techniques with non-precious materials. When his son, William Hobé, moved to the US, he started out as a sales rep for a German theatrical costume maker. In the mid 1920s, William provided the costumes for the Ziegfeld Follies Broadway productions. During that time, Ziegfeld commissioned William to create inexpensive but realistic-looking jewelry to accessorize the costumes. This launched William’s prestigious career as a jewelry designer and led him to open American Hobé Cie jewelry company in 1927.

Hobé jewelry was featured on stage and screen. William worked with costume designer Edith Head on many movies, capturing the elegance and glamour of the period. Leading Hollywood actresses, such as Bette Davis and Ava Gardner not only modeled for Hobé advertisements but they also commissioned jewelry pieces. The popularity of costume movies, such as Gone with the Wind, showcasing grand ball gowns and evening dresses fueled the trend of antique style costume jewelry. Women could purchase these high-end pieces in boutiques and upscale retailers. They were advertised as “Jewels of Legendary Splendor”.

From the 1930s to the 1970s, aside from jewelry designed by Lou Vici, the jewelry was designed by members of the Hobé family. Hobé is known for high quality and unique designs, some replicas of European royalty pieces. Their creations included beading, tassels, enamel, woven meshes or filigrees of expertly crafted twisted wire. Some of the materials, aside from more commonly used costume metals, beads and rhinestones, included vermeil, platinum, sterling, 14K gold, and semi-precious stones. They also artistically carved cinnabar and ivory pieces that looked to other cultures from around the world for inspiration.

In the 1960s, William’s sons Robert and Donald took over the business. Then in the 1980s, his grandson, James continued on in the business. The Hobé family sold the original business in the early 1990s, but Hobé jewelry marked with the Hobé symbol is still being produced today.

In our Etsy shop, we have three spectacular Hobé pieces, an elegant Hobé Black Crystal Necklace, an exotic Hobé India Inspired Necklace and Earrings, and a glamorous Hobé Pearl and Gold Mesh Necklace and Bracelet set. I bought the Pearl and Gold Mesh set from my antiques teacher, Karl Gates. He’s a certified appraiser and runs his own estate sale business. He purchased the awesome Hobe jewelry set from a lady who had inherited C.D. Peacock’s daughter’s jewelry. C.D. Peacock is a fine jewelry maker in Chicago. The set is splendid!

I’m already dreaming about the next Hobé jewelry I’ll find. It’s spectacular! Some of the photos used in this blog are from the inpsiring costume jewelry book Costume Jewelry (DK Collector’s Guides).

Bakelite is a plastic that was patented by Dr. Leo Baekeland in 1907. The chemist accidentally invented the durable plastic when trying to develop a type of varnish. Bakelite was at first used for industrial purposes, such as electrical insulators, due to its fire resistance. It’s called thermoset plastic because it can be melted and formed into shapes. Once the piece has been heated, it doesn’t melt down again. This plastic was used in creating hundreds of other products such as telephones, radios, clock casings, kitchenalia and cameras.

For over a century, jewelry designers have been drawn to using plastics because unlike metal or glass, it can be molded, carved, tinted and laminated. One of the first types of plastic jewelry was Celluloid, popular in the late 1890s, followed by Galalith. Bakelite took over in the 1920s because it is more stable and less inflammable.

Costume jewelry designers started using Bakelite to intricately carve and cast brightly colorful pieces. Due to the era, a lot of the styles of these pieces are art deco. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, women gravitated towards Bakelite jewelry because it was an inexpensive way to spice up their worn out wardrobes. More expensive designer pieces decorated with metal, wood, rhinestones, or additional plastic ornaments were added in limited numbers to jewelry collections. Bakelite jewelry remained popular until it was eclipsed by Lucite in the 1940s.

Bakelite jewelry in general is highly collectible. Some of the most sought after Bakelite jewelry today are beaded, striped, polka dotted or multi-colored. We have a Marbled Perfume Bottle Brooch, which was created with end-of-day Bakelite. This Bakelite coloring appears in jewelry when the hues that are left at the end of the day are swirled together to create a piece. Our shop also currently carries an adorable Wood and Bakelite Fish Brooch and a beautifully carved Bakelite Flower Brooch. Bakelite patterns and colors were used to imitate tortoiseshell, amber, coral, ivory and even gemstones. This malleable plastic was formed into various shapes such as human figures, animals, fruits, flowers, leaves and boats. There seems to be no end to the character and charm of this jewelry.

When purchasing Bakelite, I first check the piece to make sure that there are no mold-lines or seams. Next is the sniff test. I rub a small spot with my finger repeatedly until it’s warm from the friction. If it’s Bakelite, it will smell like formaldehyde. Remember the pungent smell from dissecting frogs in biology class? Yep, that’s it. Or I take a Q-tip and rub a tiny spot on a hidden part of the jewelry with Simichrome cleaner. If the Q-tip changes color from pink to amber-yellow, it’s Bakelite. (This doesn’t always work with black Bakelite.) Check out this website for other ways to test Bakelite.

Most of the photos used in this blog are from two inpsiring costume jewelry books Costume Jewelry (DK Collector’s Guides) and Costume Jewelry (POCKET COLLECTIBLES).

Now I’m off . . . to hunt for stripes!

“I remember, when I was so small I could hardly read, seeing a cartoon of two men bathing on a solitary beach. The started to talk, got along splendidly, and after sunning themselves for a long time went behind different rocks to dress. One came out all smartness with a dangling lorgnette and a silver stick; the other in rags. Stupefied, they looked at each other, and with a cold nod each turned and went his separate way. They had nothing more to say to one another.” Elsa Schiaparelli

Imagine the Paris fashion scene in the 1930s with dreamy surrealism and elegant masquerade balls. It was the era of avant-garde artists, writers and actors mingling in Parisian cafes. Women dressed in Schiaparelli duds walked the streets in styles that turned heads – grand capes embroidered with golden rays of light, bows stitched into woolen sweaters, buttons molded into tiny circus horses, black velvet telephone handbags, hats fashioned from a shoe, black gloves with golden nails, and necklaces in the shape of a terrifying serpent, yet lined in red rubies.

Couturier Elsa Schiaparelli, at the forefront of fashion, pushed the limits of the avant-garde style. As an artist and inventor, she directed her seamstresses to create outrageous collections such as ‘Musical Instruments’, ‘Butterflies’, ‘Pagan Collection’, ‘Astrological Collection’, and the ‘Circus’. Clowns, elephants and trapeze artists graced her garments with sayings such as ‘Attention à la peinture’ (wet paint). There was no limit to her imagination, humor and innovative mind. It was Schiaparelli who developed the idea of ‘ready-to-wear’ clothing and created a range of ‘boutique’ clothing and accessories.

Schiaparelli drew ideas from art, culture, and innovation bucking the trends of the Art Deco fashion scene. In the 1920s, her first foray into fashion was in directing the styles of sportswear for women and then moved into grand day and evening wear. The height of her success was between the two World Wars and her empire also included lines of jewelry, belts, buttons, scarves, purses, hats, shoes and perfume.

Her talent and original ideas attracted collaborators such as artists Jean Cocteau, Bébé Bérard, Salvador Dali (see photo), Vertès and Van Dongen. Movie stars clamored to appear in her glamorous creations; Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Norma Shearer, Marlene Dietrich (see photo) and Lauren Bacall to name a few. Mae West posed for a plaster statue in which Schiaparelli used as a model to create perfectly fitting costumes for the actress. The statue was the inspiration for the design of the bottle of her perfume ‘Shocking’ (see photo). Schiaparelli loved not only shocking in her designs but also with the creation of her signature color ‘shocking pink’ on the runways and in her autobiography, Shocking Life. Of the pink color, she wrote, ‘bright, impossible, impudent, becoming, life-giving, like all the light and the birds and the fish in the world but together, a color of China and Peru but not of the West – a shocking colour, pure and undiluted’.

After picking up stunning Pink and Purple Parfait Earrings and Rhinestone and Pearl Earrings at estate sales, I decided research Schiaparelli. The name didn’t ring a bell, but I was attracted to the colors and textures of the jewelry.

In the early 1920s, jewelry design radically changed from creating pieces with precious stones to using crystals and enamel. Costume jewelry became popular and Schiaparelli, doing what she did best, raised the bar. She believed that using fake or as she coined, ‘junk jewelry’, let her become more creative in her designs. The natural beauty of jewelry with precious stones required skill in combination unlike costume jewelry. ‘Junk jewelry’ permitted women to reveal their daring and outrageous personalities. Her jewelry line ran the gamut from precious to crystals and rhinestones. She played with untraditional materials such as china, porcelain, glass, crystal, aluminum and plastics.

One of her chic ideas was to pin a little diamond to the center of a fresh rose. Schiaparelli’s friend and client Daisy Fellowes was spotted wearing a cluster of emeralds at the top of her ear and another cluster on her lobe. Ears dripping in glamour! A finger amour design she dreamed up was a three-jointed diamond ring; one piece was worn at the base of the finger, the next one above the middle joint and the third cupping the tip of the finger. En garde!

Fastenings on French mechanics’ overalls inspired her first famous clip. Other clip designs included shell, fir cones, mushrooms, caterpillars, mermaids and musical boxes. Women walking the darkened streets of Paris could be seen wearing battery-operated, illuminated pieces on their suit lapels; some examples include a phosphorescent flower, a luminous torch, a small lamppost and a candlestick with a cherub holding a tiny light bulb.

A necklace with what looked like were aspirins was born out of her collaboration with Elsa Triolet and her husband, Surrealist poet, Louis Aragon. From afar, the Insect necklace (see photo) gave the appearance of insects scrambling around the wearer’s neck. It gives me the chills! Schiaparelli used gold and enamel coins and vegetable shapes to jangle off necklaces, bracelets and dog collars. Of her bracelets with factory cogs, saw-toothed tools, featherweight discs and flattened metal balls, Harper’s Bazaar for May 1935 exclaimed, ‘mechanical splendor, the bolder the better, the crueler the more chic.’

In the late 1930s, Schiaparelli teamed up with jewelry artisan Jean Schlumberger. Clever creations included pieces such as a pin of an ear of corn with a few missing kernels replaced with rhinestones; cupid clips and earrings; a brooch of two roller skating feet; a metal choker with water-lilies and gold frogs; a necklace strung with Victorian hands and wrists; a gold cigarette lighter shaped like a fish with ruby eyes and a flexible tail decorated in rubies. Too many gorgeous and unique designs to mention! The collaboration was a huge success but came to an end because of WWII.

Schiaparelli returned to France after WWII and continued working until 1954, when she closed her fashion house and retired. I just barely scratched the surface of one fascinating personality. Learn more about Elsa Schiaparelli and view some of her collections. For a glimpse of this classy lady in action, here’s a clip of her on “What’s My Line?”. I gleaned some of this information from two great books: Elsa Schiaparelli (Universe of Fashion) and Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli. What an inspiration!

At the age of thirteen, I started working in a consignment resale shop.  One of my main duties was to organize and display the jewelry cases.  For seven years I admired and purchased a lot of vintage jewelry.  I didn’t really pay attention to the designer names, but noticed the quality and workmanship.  Even today, some of the pieces I purchased back then are still great pieces.  Good jewelry never really goes out of style.

When I decided to follow the path to selling vintage jewelry, it came quite naturally, except that it is a little hard to part with it.  What I enjoy is what collectors and jewelry lovers also see and appreciate the jewelry too.

I am learning new things every day and I am excited to share my love for jewelry with you.