Costume Jewelry Parure, ca. 1945
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GUEST:
This is my godmother, who kind of adopted me after my mom passed away. And she was part... a set of twins who performed in the early '20s, '30s, '40s playing accordion, steel guitar, all sorts of things and singing with her twin. And then she also performed for the Allied troops over in Europe, in Germany and Austria. And her husband was a Shriner, so she would play and sing and entertain children at the children's hospital, as well as troop hospitals for injured people. And I inherited her costume jewelry that she performed in.
APPRAISER:
This jewelry is pretty fabulous stuff.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
This is her and we're actually showing her wearing it. I would say this picture dates from probably late '40s-- mid to late '40s.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And the piece we have here, when we have three or more pieces to a set, it's called a parure-- that's a French term. So you have a parure of costume jewelry. Now, what intrigued me about this piece is I am not sure who made this piece.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
But I have my suspicions. There was a designer in New York City named Miriam Haskell. And she did not sign every piece she did.
GUEST:
Ahh.
APPRAISER:
But she created pieces like this, so it's in my gut. I'm feeling that this is an unsigned parure by Miriam Haskell. Miriam Haskell used rose montee, and that's these little rhinestones here. They're flat on the back and they're prong-set.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
She also used a type of gold color. It's not real gold, it's called Russian gold. And it's not real shiny, but it has a depth of color that is amazing. She also traveled all over the world collecting unusual beads, and she's used an aquamarine-colored bead and contrast it nicely with a yellow-colored bead. Now the cool thing about Haskell is all of these pieces are handwired on. All that wire work is covered up on the back with fantastic filigree.
GUEST:
It's beautiful.
APPRAISER:
It is beautiful, and it makes it actually smooth against the skin and it won't snag on your clothing either.
GUEST:
Ah.
APPRAISER:
The bracelet is made of memory wire inside, so there's no clasp. It just kind of clasps on your wrist, which is a nice thing because it fits a small wrist and a large wrist.
GUEST:
And it's very flexible still, which surprised me.
APPRAISER:
Very flexible. Now an unsigned Haskell... in 2015, on today's market, Haskell is very hot, very hot, especially with the colored beads that we see here because mostly she did pearls and gold beads and gold chain. Sometimes she would do special sets for people and she might have even created this for your godmother. On today's market, retail level, this set could sell for $1,200 to $1,500.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
Yes. And if we could prove that it is truly a Haskell...
GUEST:
Uh-huh?
APPRAISER:
...it could go up to $2,000 for the set.
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh! For costume jewelry. But I know it's beautiful, I love it. Thank you so much.
APPRAISER:
Appreciate it, it was a pleasure.
GUEST:
And I'm sure my godmother is going, "Yes!" (laughs)
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