Puzzling Evidence: The End of the Miriam Haskell Mystery?

 A discussion at Beadcollector.net early in 2013 started me on my exploration of Chinese cloisonne beads in Western costume jewelry, featuring pictures of a necklace found on Etsy and attributed to Miriam Haskell.  In the dozen years since, harvesting pictures and purchasing examples has led to a sorting of designs into groups as described in previous posts.  This is hopefully the last post I plan to do on this “Miriam Haskell Mystery,” as the necklaces and bracelets in this design suite seem likely to me to be post-World War II and the last incidence of actual Chinese-manufactured beads showing up in fashion jewelry until the 1970s, when the 20-year U.S. embargo on Chinese imports was lifted.

I could be entirely wrong on that dating guess, of course, but the array of findings and beads and overall style is quite different from what are likely pre-War late 1930s-pre-1941 designs.  This seems to me consistent with the post-1945 revival of the Rhode Island jewelry factories once their machines were re-tooled from wartime munitions production. Critical as well was the rage for Dior’s 1947 “New Look” and coordinating opulent jewelry heavy with glass and rhinestone components from Maison Gripoix and Swarovski.

“A new look required updated jewelry to accessorize these more feminine styles. Out with the bulky Retro jewelry of the ‘40s and in with beautifully crafted floral designs and other ladylike motifs such as bows.”

https://www.antiquetrader.com/collectibles/christian-dior-jewelry

“Oriental” charm jewelry of the 1950s is exemplified by Eugene Bertolli’s “Chinese Lanterns” and “Shangri-la” designs for the Napier Company – heavy, well-constructed bracelets composed of sculptural plated castings and chains, the only imported Asian components being lampwork glass beads from Japan.

https://napierbook.com/product/chunky-vintage-napier-shangri-la-charm-bracelet/

The designs in this post center around a distinctive double rollo chain with a jeweled box clasp.  The finding and beads used are a more lavish step up from the related bookchain designs described in the previous post, with which they share a number of components and findings.  While there is apparently some doubt among collectors as to whether the bookchain designs were products of the Miriam Haskell workshop, the manner in which they seem to form a sequence with earlier designs as well as the jewelry in this post makes me lean toward their being Haskell product lines. After all, if not Haskell, what evidence is there for another designer to have produced this range of related jewelry with its distinctive quirky assemblage and manipulation of findings (instead of relying upon in-house casting and plating, such as for Coro and Rice-Weiner)?

A marker for this suite of jewelry is the use of a distinctive glass cylinder bead featuring “peppermint cane” stripes or a speckled crumb surface.  Where these beads originated is a mystery – Japan? Venice? Czechoslovakia?  On some compositions a turquoise glass Czech “Egyptian revival” bead stands in for the lampwork glass cylinder, which seems more than a little odd, unless the workshop was simply striving for an overall “exotic” effect in keeping with the “Bakelite” urns, pitchers, and amphorae.

The jewelry examples in the following slides are arranged very roughly in the chronological order of either their online sale or when I discovered the pictures if no sales data was availabled (if you recognize a photo of yours and want attribution, just tell me). It was fun following the internet breadcrumbs to track down the 2014 PBS television show “Market Warriors” to discover that the necklace and earrings set had been purchased by one of the show stars for $420 (he believed it was Chinese), only to achieve a disappointing $125 in the subsequent show audience auction.  These pieces now sell for around a thousand dollars and up.

https://www.youtube.com/live/kyOphjaGxJg

There seems to have been some of the usual collector messing around with the designs, rearranging dangles or adding substitutes according to taste or need for repair.  These pieces, after all, have been passing through various hands for 80 years.

Click on any picture for an enlarged view or open the picture in a new tab for increased magnification.

Puzzling Evidence: A Suite of "Chinese Charm" Designs Featuring Bookchain, Uncertain Attribution to Miriam Haskell

A distinctive cluster of bookchain necklaces featuring charms apparently inspired by “Chinese lantern” charm jewelry, possibly created around World War II in a year in which actual Chinese-manufactured beads had become scarce. Late 1940s?  Early 1950s? The only Chinese beads in these designs are cloisonne dragon beads and carved cinnabar lacquer, unlike the suites of Chinese charm jewelry discussed in prior blog posts.

There are two separate composition styles:

• The first features a showy elaborate bookchain as well as a standard bookchain. 

• The second style features standard bookchain with the large bead dangles interspersed by small dangles made from brass findings.  

Many of the same beads appear in the dangles for both styles, indicating they were likely made in the same workshop at the same time.  The sources of the beads are varied –Molded and lampwork glass from Venice, or Japan, or Czechoslovakia? Blown glass from Lauscha? Stone chip inlay from India? Plastics, both phenolic and non-phenolic. Molded composition beads from Japan. Chinese carved cinnabar and cloisonne dragon beads from the 1930s. Painted wood. Sea beans. A distinctive large metal filigree bead. And others… 

Whether this suite of jewelry was part of an unsigned Miriam Haskell line is a mystery.  Possibly a case could be made for Czech manufacture, but more evidence is needed. Ditto for manufacture by a designer/workshop other than Haskell.

Click on photos for a larger view. Open in a new tab for increased magnification.

Temporary Link: eBay necklace on offer from Linda's Treasures of the Past https://www.ebay.com/itm/235908209519

Puzzling Evidence: A Suite of Findings & Beads in Circa 1940s Jewelry Attributed to Miriam Haskell

 

The previous blog post discussed a distinctive chain and clasp that shows up often in “Chinese Lantern” charm jewelry circa World War 2. 

https://www.beadiste.com/2024/12/puzzling-evidence-distinctive-chain.html

This post is an extended discussion of the suite of distinctive findings that accompany the beads used in these designs.  These findings – and the ways they are used - are so unique to these necklaces, bracelets, and brooches that it is difficult to believe they did not originate from a single workshop. 

Lore has it that it was the Miriam Haskell workshop that produced this jewelry, but none of the pieces are signed.  The clasps are often inconsistent with the supposed use by Haskell of only knobless spring ring clasps; a significant number of the pieces feature knobbed spring rings.  Are these replacements, or original to the pieces?  Did wartime metal restrictions encourage the use of whatever clasps were still available from the findings factories?

eBay vendor SouthernAntiqueJewels currently has on offer two of the pieces shown in the slides. Photos used with permission.

https://www.ebay.com/str/southernantiquejewels

Link to informative article about Larry Vrba at Morning Glory Jewelry:

https://www.morninggloryjewelry.com/articles/article/lawrence-larry-vrba-jewelry/

Click on photos for a larger view. Open in a new tab for increased magnification.