J.C. Petersen Co. - Vintage Mensware - A History

I love vintage fashion and I think that coming across beautiful, unique pieces that were actually created in the Midwest is quite the treat! I'm lucky to work in downtown St. Louis on Washington Ave, which was once the thriving hub of the garment district. You can still seen the fade worn painted signs on the sides of buildings touting shoe companies, clothiers and hat manufactures as you drive toward my office building, heading East. It brings a sense of nostalgia to my every day and always makes me curious when I locate a piece that was made here in St. Louis if it was perhaps sewn just up the street or maybe even in the very building where I work!

As I find pieces I always try to do a little bit of research on them before I post them online or put them out for sale at events, as I think knowing the item or garment's history is part of loving the piece. One of the coolest pieces I pulled while at Donnaland's warehouse was a men's sports coat. I grabbed it first because the pattern excited me and secondly, because of the stunning condition it seemed to be in. Yes, it was wrinkly and smelly, but all the buttons were there, the seems intact, the lining perfect and the shape had potential!

After taking it home, cleaning it and getting it back into form I started doing research on the maker - J.C. Petersen Co. Clothier out of Boone, IA. The first thing I thought was "Really, they had high end mensware designers in Boone?!?" I know Boone, IA from my day job. It's where I spent every other birthday for 6 years while the city hosted The Farm Progress Show - one of the largest farm trade shows and events in the U.S. So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that the most  unique piece, with the best print, I had pulled was designed and manufactured in Boone.

There's not a lot of information out there on the company, but I was able to scrounge up a bio on the man who created the company. JC Petersen was born in Germany in 1868. He's a classic example of the huge immigration movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the age of 16 he boarded a boat in Hamburg and set off for New York. Once he arrived in the U.S. he headed West to make his destiny and ended up in Iowa. Petersen started out as a farmer. He worked and went to school in Iowa in order to learn English and more about the America. He's first recorded as a resident of Boone in 1893, where he became a clerk at a local clothing store. He worked for a number of years in the shop, putting aside his earnings in order to one day strike out on his own.

Petersen put that dream into motion in 1897 when he started Petersen & Samson. Unfortunately Samson died rather young, leaving Petersen running the business on his own. In 1902 he shortened the business name to just JC Petersen Co and hired new business partners. Together they launched a large department store that specialized in men's clothing and furnishings.The business remained thriving until the 1950s roughly. The family still has some of the mensware pieces from the shop and JC's great-great-grandson sells vintage mensware as The Houndstooth Kid!

I believe the sports coat I have to be from about the 1920s based on the tag and pattern. I hope to have it up on Etsy soon, but for now, it's a bit of history for you!

Avon - A Brand History

Probably one of the most iconic names in beauty products - Avon began producing costume jewelry in 1963 and continues to do so today. The company was founded in 1886, focusing mainly on perfumes. It was founded by David McConnell and offered, at the time, an unheard of opportunity for women to go into business for themselves. In the late 1800s if women worked, it was mainly in factories, as housekeepers or maids and as laborers on farms. The opportunity to sell perfume opened doors for women in a supportive way.

The company, originally known as the California Perfume Company, grew quickly, growing to 5,000 representatives by 1900. In the 1929 CPC began using the word Avon for some of their products and in 1932 received their first trademark approval. In 1939 the company officially became Avon Products, Inc. and began offering more products such as skin care lines.

It wasn't until 1963 that Avon began offering jewelry to customers, but it wasn't for sale, the jewelry was offered as a gift with purchase. The jewelry became popular among Avon's client and a demand began building for the jewelry as a separate purchase from the perfume and skin care products.

Avon began experimentally selling a few pieces in 1965, but until 1970 most pieces were only available with an Avon product. After 1970 the pieces became more and more popular and the costume jewelry became it's own section of products available in the Avon catalog.

For vintage collectors this timeline can be a helpful tool - odds are most of the pieces you'll find are going to be from the 70s or newer. Most Avon jewelry is decent quality - but not very high-end. So you'll need to look for pricing accordingly. Some of the most popular pieces were perfume pendants. These were very big in the 70s, usually very heavy and well made, more so at least than some of the later vintage costume jewelry pieces.

All Avon pieces will be marked. They've always done a great job of branding their items and it's pretty consistent. The main way you'll be able to date items is based on the design of the piece. 60s and 70s pieces will have a lot of plastic - lucite and thermosets mainly. Look for older pieces to be made of metal in goldtone color and real rhinestones. Also look for resin cameo pieces - Avon created a lot of those!

I've posted some pictures of different Avon pieces I've had or sold for reference. Happy hunting!

Whiting & Davis - A Brand History

I absolutely adore Whiting & Davis. A.D.O.R.E. it! I first learned about this brand when I started my vintage purse collection. Whiting & Davis is very well known for creating metal and mesh purses. Of which I now have several. So much to my pleasant surprise I found out that they made really high-end costume jewelry too. The pieces I've seen that I love the most tend to be their cameos. I've had several pairs of Whiting and Davis clip cameo earrings come through my shop and just this past week I was lucky enough to be top bidder on a table of jewelry at an auction. I had combed through the boxes of lot jewelry and noticed that one of the boxes of miscellaneous jewelry actually had several vintage compacts and a nice box, which, just so happened to contain a gorgeous Whiting & Davis Cameo set! Pendant and clip earrings were both so pretty! They were worth the price of the whole box!

Whiting & Davis was based in Plainville, MA and started producing mesh chain purses in the late 1800s. They're also one of the oldest costume jewelers in the country as well. Research I've done (www.vintagecostumejewels.com) indicates that the company was started as a chain making firm owned by William Wade and Edward Davis. Then in 1907 C.W. Whiting became a partner and the company created a machine that allowed them to produce what they became most popular for, mesh purses or bags.

In addition to the bags they're most well known in the costume jewelry world for their cameos, both glass and hand painted porcelain. What makes some of their cameos so beautiful is the use of iridescent glass. Cutting the cameo heads out of this material gives them a shimmer and glow that is irresistible! They hit a real popularity in the 1950s when the introduced a reproduction line that created cameos and other jewelry sets that looked like museum pieces.

They're also know for being more inventive in the coloring of the glass and cameo settings. They created a line of "Topaz Glass" where they put a cream colored iridescent glass over a black glass background to create a brown, topaz-like color.They also created cameos that look red, pink or purple depending on the lighting by using frosted glass against a black glass background.

Whiting & Davis is still in business today - but only in their purse line. They stopped production of their costume jewelry in 1991. By the general rule of thumb, to be "vintage" an item must be at least 20 years old - so all pieces of Whiting & Davis Jewelry are now officially vintage, as of this year.

This brand is one I personally would spend money on. I trust the quality of the materials that Whiting & Davis used and I love the craftsmanship. Depending on the age of the piece is where you'll see different price points. For sets that are from the 1950s-1960s I'd easily price those, depending on quality at $50-150, with the high-end pricing for a set that included a bracelet or earrings, necklace and brooch, or for pieces that date in the 1920s-40s. If you find these at an estate sale, auction, flea market or antique shop add them to your shopping list!

Coro - A Brand History

Part II of my series on top vintage costume jewelry brands, featuring Coro.

Coro

Coro Jewelry has been around since 1900. It was founded in New York as part of the Cohn & Rosenberger company which was started by Emanuel Cohn and his partner Carl Rosenberger. The brand made costume jewelry for 79 years, closing their doors in 1979. The name Coro wasn't actually adopted by the company until 1943, when the blend of Cohn & Rosenberger's names was officially made the corporate name.

Cohn had died in 1910, but the Rosenberger family still gave tribute to his contributions to the brand. Carl continued to manage the company until his death in 1957, when the brand was taken over by Gerald Rosenberger, Carl's son, who managed the company until his death 10 years later.

The family sold 51% of the company to Richton, Intl., who bought out the whole company in 1970. In 1979 Coro went bankrupt and closed it's doors for good.

So you know when you're out shopping vintage and run across a Coro brand, it's at least 32 years old! Which for me is exciting news, as I found a couple of pieces of what we refer to as "dead stock" Coro several months ago. Dead stock means that the jewelry is actually "new" or at least never sold or worn. Normally this comes from businesses cleaning out old inventory or going out of business themselves and cleaning out warehouses of old inventory. I love finding dead stock and seeing the original packaging and branding on products!
To find out more about Coro marks visit this great reference site: http://www.illusionjewels.com/costumejewelrymarkscoro.html