Life Lessons Through Vintage

Awhile back when my grandfather was first diagnosed with terminal cancer I sat down and wrote a blog post about what it meant to me and how it took hearing the news about his cancer to realize that my grandpa had been a huge inspiration and sort of the kick start to how I began collecting vintage. It was this collecting passion that led me to my little business and that has become a very integral part of my life.

I was honored the other day when I submitted my post about my grandpa and what I had learned in the now almost two years I've been a vintage clothing, vintage jewelry and vintage accessories seller on Etsy to another vintage expert and she was interested in publishing it on her blog. Sammy Davis of Sammy Davis Vintage, not only showcases great vintage clothing and vintage retail experience, she's a firm believer in empowering others to do their very best and to succeed in our journeys of promoting vintage love. Through this message she's featuring stories that have inspired other vintage sellers to start their journeys in this crazy world of vintage retail.

The wonderful thing about Sammy is that she has a knack for taking stories like mine and turning them into lessons that other vintage sellers can learn from. She's taken my original blog post and tweaked it into a great lesson on building a brand for your vintage business. Take a peek at how she's turned my post into something wonderful, complete now with photos and more background history!

I'd love to read comments from you all about what inspires you - even if it isn't in vintage! Post your inspirations below!

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