Fantastic Plastic: Collecting Mid-Century Costume Jewelry

By Pamela Wiggins Siegel Growing up in the 1960s, I remember the women in my life wearing jewelry decorated with some attention-grabbing plastic components. My grandmother had a super chunky bracelet embellished with simulated turquoise, and my mom had some lipstick red button earrings glammed up with clear rhinestones. My Aunt Billie even had a […]

A Bakelite Radio Once Owned by the Shirelles? Prove It.

Q: I am excited to ask you about my Bakelite radio. Although it looks like an ordinary worn radio from the early 1940s, it happens to have come from the home of the Shirelles – the historic girls singing group of the 1960s. This is the radio that the girls sat around the kitchen table […]

Merry and Bright: Bakelite Jewelry 

Did you know Bakelite was born in America more than 100 years ago? A century after the first pieces were made, Bakelite jewelry is still a favorite of collectors. For some the jewelry may be a historic reflection of the 1920s to 1940s when it was inexpensive and widely available. Or collectors may simply love […]

Bakelite Pins and Bangles Coming Back

Bakelite jewelry from the 1920s to the 1940s was colorful, well-designed and inexpensive, which made it popular during the Depression years. As recently as 2018, it was getting auction prices as high as $1,500 for a rare carved black and butterscotch colored bangle bracelet (not pictured). Since then, the jewelry has been selling significantly lower, […]

Kovels On Antiques & Collectibles Vol. 48 No. 4 – December 2021

Christmas Postcards … Meissen Porcelain … Bakelite Jewelry … Old Storage Cupboards …  Mechanical Pictures … Cool Mid-Century Design of Everyday Items … Marks on Dolls … Collector’s Gallery … Prices    

The Beat Goes On: Vintage Radios 

Vintage American radios from the 1930s and 1940s still command high auction prices.  Bonhams Los Angeles recently sold a collection of 88 radios that included some of the most important radio makers from the 1930s and ’40s. The selection represents the finest radio makers from the era, including Air King, Sparton, Fada and Emerson. Director […]

Bakelite Jewelry

Bakelite was developed in the early 1900s, and by the 1930s, was being used for jewelry by major designers, often in the Art Deco style. Bakelite was needed for the war effort in the 1940s, so the jewelry wasn’t made then. About 1997, the Deco jewelry was rediscovered by collectors. Books were published with information […]

Bakelite & Silver Costume Jewelry

Costume jewelry is growing in popularity as younger women discover the jewelry their mothers and grandmothers wore in the middle of the 20th century. You can find examples at house sales, antique and consignment shops, flea markets and auctions. There are styles made of all sorts of materials, from plastic and wood to metal and […]