All I know about these pieces are that they might be from the 1950's and are handmade woven wire jewelry. If you have any further information, please POST here!
 

Have a pin that you want earrings to match? Looking for earrings to match that necklace? Feel free to upload a pic of that match you are looking for. It's a great way to make a SET!!!

When evaluating a collection or pricing for resale, using books can be
both informative an misleading.  Clearly, some of the value guides are
more realistic than others.  We must remember that these are only guides
and not meant to set the market value.      

Rarely do I see collectibles of any nature going for "book" value.  Some
collectible books are much lower than current market value of the items
contained therein and others are much higher.  In fact, I've heard some
people accuse a certain glassware author/dealer of pricing things in his
books very low, so he can buy at those prices and then go to shows and
sell much higher.  The same thing could happen in our world, if jewelry
guides were pricing on the low end instead of wildly overstated.      

So how do we determine fair values?  Can we base the prices we see on
the net and apply them to items we sell in malls or at shows and vice
versa?  It's really not that simple.  After all, some show and shop
prices are inflated to give the dealer room to discount deeply for their
customers. It's part of the psychological bargaining game that goes on
in dealing face-to-face with customers that is absent most of the time
on web sites and eBay.  Not that I like it, WYSIWYG pricing works better
for me, but I'd rather bargain a little than miss out on something I
really want!

I think we should remember that jewelry values are ultimately determined
by the individual consumer.  In that light, it doesn't seem realistic to
expect an author to write a value guide that applies to all
transactions.  Whether buying for a collection or for resale, the
customer generally has an idea of what they feel is fair for any given
piece -- this isn't based on something written in a book.  Sometimes it
is a gut feeling, sometimes it's based on a past transaction (or lack
thereof in the case of dealers who have been sitting on merchandise for
a while).  In other words, we are all forced to come up with our own
guidelines for purchasing.  

My advice is to use the books to determine what is rare and what is
common and then come up with your own buying/selling strategies.  

Being an avid collector of 1940's Retro Stylized Jewelry for many years, I'll admit I've often sat on the floor and just looked over my own personal array of bracelets, pins, necklaces and earrings and sat dreaming about the era. According to an article in Colliers, December 15, 1943: "American Women are crazy over jewelry. They spend a billion three-hundred million a year on it. The young girls are buying tiny jeweled pins to fasten on very demure velvet neckbands. One store reports a brisk sale of butterfly cutouts for a suntan, or initials will be cut in the anklet.....
All you have to do is walk into that old copycat, the five-and-ten. There you'll see sophisticated sunbursts, and dome-shaped earrings and bracelets, replicas of the costly gold ones that are popularly studded with chips of turquoise, diamond and ruby. Elegant, not gaudy, is the word. "

In the 1940s a design was introduced called "Retro Modern," that featured flamboyant curves and bows in large pieces of jewelry. Yellow, pink and even green gold was used in this jewelry, along with unusual mixtures of colored gemstones. In 1943, gold jewelry with a greenish color became more popular than gold jewelry with a reddish or pink color because the red tint came from copper which was scarce and the greenish color came from silver which was not. 



1940's Chatelaine Brooches
These "Double Brooches" were often called Chatelaine Pins because of the likeness the the Victorian and earlier Chatelaines - These were pins that were worn to help keep track of keys to all the doors in the house, a change purse to pay door deliveries, sewing accessories for emergencies, and various other items used in daily routines. Today a Chatelaine consists of two brooches with pin backs. Each brooch has a ring where one or more chains connect the two brooches together. These were very fashionable in the 1940's.

These pins were produced by Harry Iskin, Van Dell, Coro, Trifari; some gold plated, others goldfilled or sterling.

Novelty Chatelaine Brooches
Novelty jewelry was also very popular during the 1940's. These Double Brooches or Pins were a fun wear... Women walking their dog Pins, Sword and Crown Pins, Mother and Baby Birds, just to name a few.
 
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Jewelry and buckles made of faceted steel studs that were riveted into a baseplate forming various patterns. This jewelry was popular from about the 1760's until the late 19th century. The faceting took on the appearance of rose cut diamonds that were also popular at the time. Marcasites are similar in appearance to cut steel.


Do you have a piece of Cut Steel jewelry you wish to talk about?