From the Department Store Counter to the Jewelry Box: How Vintage Costume Jewelry Was Originally Sold

From the Department Store Counter to the Jewelry Box: How Vintage Costume Jewelry Was Originally Sold

Today, vintage costume jewelry often turns up in places far removed from where it began. A rhinestone brooch may be sitting in a grandmother's jewelry box. Clip-on earrings might be wrapped in tissue inside an old dresser drawer. A necklace purchased for a special occasion decades ago may now be mixed together with buttons, watches, chains, rings, and newer jewelry.

But when many of these pieces were new, they were part of a much different shopping experience.

From department store jewelry counters to small fashion boutiques, catalog pages, gift shops, and specialty stores, costume jewelry was sold as an important part of personal style. Looking at how this jewelry was originally marketed and purchased helps explain why so many vintage collections today contain such an interesting mixture of pieces.

The Department Store Jewelry Counter

For much of the twentieth century, department stores played an important role in the way Americans shopped for clothing, accessories, gifts, cosmetics, and jewelry.

A customer could visit a department store and find jewelry displayed in glass cases or arranged on cards and presentation displays. Costume jewelry gave shoppers an opportunity to change their appearance without purchasing expensive fine jewelry every time fashions changed.

Brooches, bracelets, necklaces, dress clips, earrings, faux pearls, rhinestone pieces, and matching sets could all be part of the selection.

Some jewelry was intended for everyday wear. Other pieces were dramatic enough for an evening event, wedding, holiday party, dinner, or special occasion.

For many customers, visiting the jewelry counter was simply part of shopping for fashion.

Costume Jewelry Followed Fashion

One reason costume jewelry became so popular was its ability to change along with fashion.

Clothing styles changed from decade to decade, and jewelry changed with them. A piece did not necessarily need diamonds, rubies, or precious metals to create a strong visual effect. Glass stones, rhinestones, enamel, imitation pearls, plated metals, plastics, and other materials allowed designers and manufacturers to experiment with color, size, shape, and texture.

A woman could own several brooches or necklaces and choose different pieces depending on her clothing or the occasion. Jewelry could be bold, colorful, elegant, whimsical, geometric, floral, or highly decorative.

That variety is one reason old family collections can look so different from one another today.

Jewelry Was Often Sold on Cards

Not every piece came in an elaborate jewelry box.

Earrings, pins, necklaces, and other accessories were often attached to display cards or packaged with printed information. The card might contain a company name, logo, store information, price, style number, or other clues about the jewelry.

Over time, these cards were usually discarded. The jewelry was removed and placed into a personal jewelry box with everything else.

Occasionally, however, old jewelry is still found attached to its original card. When that happens, the packaging can provide useful information about how the piece was originally presented and sold.

An original card does not automatically make an ordinary piece rare or valuable, but it can provide an additional piece of the jewelry's history.

Matching Sets Were an Important Part of the Look

Matching jewelry sets were once a very common way to create a coordinated appearance.

A necklace might have matching earrings. A brooch could be accompanied by matching clip-on earrings. Larger groups could include bracelets, necklaces, brooches, and earrings using the same stones, colors, or design.

Decades later, these sets are often separated.

One earring might be in a different box. The necklace may have been given to another family member. A brooch might remain while the rest of the set disappeared years ago.

When going through an older collection, pieces with the same colors, stones, construction, or decorative pattern are worth keeping together until you know whether they originally belonged to the same group.

Boxes Can Tell Part of the Story

Old jewelry boxes are another interesting part of vintage collections.

Some pieces were sold or presented in branded boxes. Others may have been placed into a department store box when they were purchased as a gift.

But there is an important distinction to remember: jewelry found in an old box did not necessarily originate in that box.

People reuse jewelry boxes.

A box that originally held one necklace may later contain several unrelated brooches. A fine jewelry box might contain costume earrings. A department store box may have been used for decades as a convenient place to keep small items.

For that reason, a name printed on a box should be considered a clue rather than proof that the jewelry inside was made or sold by that company.

Small Boutiques and Specialty Stores Also Sold Jewelry

Department stores were important, but they were not the only source of costume jewelry.

Boutiques, dress shops, gift shops, specialty stores, tourist shops, and smaller local retailers also sold fashion jewelry.

A customer buying a new dress might purchase earrings or a brooch to complete the outfit. Jewelry could be displayed near clothing, handbags, gloves, scarves, and other accessories.

This helps explain why some attractive vintage pieces are unsigned or associated with makers that are difficult to identify today.

Not every piece was created to become a collectible. Much of it was simply fashionable jewelry meant to be worn and enjoyed.

Catalog Shopping Brought Jewelry Into the Home

Catalogs and mail-order shopping also helped introduce jewelry to a large audience.

Before online shopping, printed catalogs allowed customers to browse clothing, household products, gifts, accessories, and jewelry from home.

Jewelry could be selected from a photograph or illustration, ordered, and delivered without visiting a jewelry counter.

This is another reason an inherited collection may contain pieces from many different sources. One item might have come from a local department store, another from a catalog, another from a vacation, and another from a neighborhood boutique.

Travel Added Even More Variety to Jewelry Boxes

Travel was another source of jewelry.

People frequently purchased jewelry as souvenirs or gifts while visiting another city, state, or country. Over a lifetime, these pieces could become mixed with department store costume jewelry, sterling silver, handmade pieces, fine jewelry, and everyday accessories.

This is why a large inherited collection may contain jewelry that looks completely different from everything around it.

A single jewelry box can sometimes represent decades of shopping, travel, gifts, fashion changes, and family history.

Signed and Unsigned Jewelry Was Sold Side by Side

Many people who begin researching vintage costume jewelry immediately look for a signature.

Maker marks can certainly be useful. Names and markings can help identify a manufacturer, designer, or approximate period.

However, old jewelry counters were not filled exclusively with pieces that collectors would recognize by name today.

Signed and unsigned jewelry could exist within the same general marketplace. Some manufacturers consistently marked their pieces, while other jewelry may have had information on a paper tag or card that disappeared long ago.

This is why unsigned jewelry should not automatically be thrown away when sorting a collection.

For more information about the types of pieces that may receive buyer interest, see our guide to what vintage costume jewelry buyers look for.

Why So Much Vintage Jewelry Is Mixed Together Today

Jewelry that was once carefully displayed behind glass eventually became part of everyday life.

It was worn to work, church, dinners, weddings, holidays, parties, and family events. After fashions changed, some pieces were placed into drawers rather than discarded.

Years passed.

Newer jewelry was added. Older jewelry moved toward the bottom of the box. Pieces inherited from parents and grandparents were added to the same collection.

Eventually, one jewelry box could contain items purchased across fifty or even seventy years.

This is the type of mixed collection families often encounter today.

Old Packaging, Tags and Cards Are Worth Keeping

If you are going through an older collection, resist the temptation to immediately throw away every old box, card, tag, or piece of paper.

Keep obvious groups together while you sort.

If earrings are still attached to an old card, leave them there. If a necklace is inside a fitted box that appears made specifically for the piece, keep the two together. If several pieces have matching designs, place them together rather than separating them.

Old packaging may help provide clues about the maker, retailer, original presentation, or history of a piece.

Again, packaging alone does not establish value. It simply becomes one more piece of information when looking at the collection as a whole.

From Fashion Accessory to Vintage Collectible

One of the most interesting things about vintage costume jewelry is that many pieces were never intended to become historical objects.

They were fashion accessories.

Someone saw a brooch at a department store counter and liked it. Someone bought a pair of earrings to match a dress. Someone received a necklace as a birthday present. Another person brought home jewelry from a trip.

Decades later, some of those same pieces are collected because of their design, maker, construction, color, age, condition, or connection to a particular period in fashion.

Others remain common examples of the jewelry that ordinary people purchased and wore.

Both are part of the history of costume jewelry.

Looking Through an Older Costume Jewelry Collection

At Jewelry Buyers Vintage & Costume, we regularly see older jewelry collections containing a mixture of signed and unsigned costume jewelry, rhinestones, brooches, clip-on earrings, necklaces, bracelets, sterling silver, estate pieces, and jewelry collected over many years.

We do not expect the person who inherited the collection to know where every piece came from or who made it.

If you are considering selling a collection, it is often better to keep unfamiliar older jewelry together rather than throwing pieces away because they are unsigned, out of fashion, or difficult to identify.

You can also visit our vintage and costume jewelry buyer page to learn more about the types of jewelry and collections we currently consider.

The next time you open an old jewelry box, remember that many of the pieces inside once began somewhere very different: under the lights of a department store counter, on a jewelry card in a boutique, inside a gift box, or pictured on the page of a catalog.

That journey from fashion accessory to family keepsake is part of what makes vintage costume jewelry so interesting today.