Vintage Brooches

Some of us love to wear designer clothes but did you know you can by vintage designer brooches too? These are by names jewellers or by clothing designers who have made a range of brooches to accompany their clothes too.
So who are these designers , dating back to the early 1900s you can find famous designer names in jewellery like Lalique and Charles Horner however the first big name clothing designer who made a range of jewellery is reputed to be Coco Chanel. During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s names like Norman Hartnell and Christian Dior made excellent vintage costume jewellery brooches which are very sought after today.
Look out for the Scandinavian and Scottish designers too, there are some really excellent silver and silver and enamel brooches. From Scotland pieces made in Iona and from Scandinavia Georg Jensen and David Andersen are particularly desirable.

Stars of stage and stage and screen have also given their names to ranges of jewellery including brooches - The Joan Rivers collection of costume jewellery is quite extensive and has some very glamorous pieces.

You can find vintage brooches made of all kinds of materials, silver is one of the most widely used . Silver brooches come in all shapes and sizes, they can be found plain or set with gemstones or coloured with enamels. Silver brooches often have hallmarks which help is to date them accurately and if we are lucky also come with the makers mark or logo impressed.
Silver brooches range in size from tiny pins of 1 centimeter or less to huge brooches of 6 or 7 centimeters long. Popular collecting fields for silver brooches include Scottish and Scandinavian brooches, art nouveau silver brooches and silver and enamel animal brooches.

Have you ever thought of starting a vintage brooch collection? Vintage brooches can be collected and displayed just like any other vintage collectable and also you can take out your special brooches and wear them too.

Your collection can be just a general selection of vitnage brooches or you could introduce a theme. Perhaps Victorian Brooches, animal brooches, silver brooches, blue brooches or even mourning brooches. Brooches from England or enamel brooches - the list is endless. Here are a few suggestion for excellent vintage brooches for you to base a collection arround:

Newt or Lizard brooch
A special vintage brooch in the shape of a Lizard or Newt. This brooch is from the early 1900s and is made of 800 grade silver indicating that it was made in Europe possible France or Germany. The green, red and clear stones are Paste which is a type of costume jewellery stone which was popular at the time this antique brooch was made. This Lizard brooch measures about 5 cms long

Teddy Bear Brooch
Askew London Jewellery is now very collectable. This Jewellery was made during circa 1980s. Here is a very sweet Teddy Bear brooch which has an articulated head, arms and legs. This teddy brooch is suck high quality that you can sit him down like an ornament if you like. Teddy measures almost 4 cms high

Marcasite set brooches
A pretty vintage brooch made from silver in the shape of a garland or spray of leaves. This brooch is set all round with sparkling marcasites. It measures about 3.7 cms diameter

AntiquesAvenue offers a variety of vintage brooches.
These can be found as Antique Brooches , vintage brooches made of siler and gold and vintage costume jewellery brooches

Lucite is an early type of plastic which during the 1930s / 1940s was used in brooches in its clear form. The lucite was hand carved from the reverse using miniature drills. The spaces were then filled with plaster of paris and then this plaster of paris was coloured in to give the picture. A pin was added to turn this miniature work of art int a brooch. These lucite brooches are now collectable vintage items. AntiquesAvenue offers a nice selection of vintage costume brooches made of lucite for you to see: