Exquisite vintage jewelry for women with far from ordinary tastes
TruFaux Jewels offers elegant and unique necklaces, earrings, bracelets, brooches, clips, and accessories by notable American and European designers, from the flapper style to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Barbara’s Picks: Fruit Salads
This style of jewelry, popularized in the 1920s by Cartier, is composed of multi-colored gemstones, most typically carved into leaves, acorns, and/or flowers. Costume jewelers used molded or blown glass to achieve the same look. Also known as tutti frutti, these jewels often included pearl and/or diamanté accents. So versatile!
Gemstone Fruit Salad 1930s Clip-Mates by Trifari
1930s Jewelry, Double Clip Brooches, Trifari JewelryThis Trifari fruit salad piece was designed by Alfred Philippe. It features the company's popular trio of acorn-shaped, molded glass to imitate carved gemstones (rubies, sapphires, and emeralds). This design is one example of Trifari's Clip-Mates, their answer to Coro's Duette. This piece can be worn as a brooch or as separate dress clips. The influence of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels on Philippe is evident in the fruit salad lines he designed for Trifari in the mid-1930s and early 1940s. The setting of this special early piece is rhodium-plated metal with diamanté accents. The pin closes with a roll-over safety clasp. You can see the utility patent for the brooch mechanism here, shown below Trifari's name. Scroll down to see a fruit salad bar brooch, also by this maker but with stones in a different shape.USD$795.00USD$795.00
Gemstone Fruit Salad & Diamanté Dress Clips
1930s Jewelry, Unsigned Jewelry, Vintage Dress ClipsThis pair of vintage dress pins has ruby, sapphire, and emerald acorn-shaped glass stones surrounded by diamanté. Costume jewelry makers adopted this practice of molding colored glass in the shapes of leaves or fruits to imitate Indian-carved gemstones used in fine jewelry. Firms such as Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels popularized these fruit salads or tutti frutti in Art Deco pieces. The trio of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds was a favorite combination. The setting of these classic 1930s dress clips is rhodium-plated base metal. Notice the photo showing one clip worn as a pendant on a sterling silver chain (which is not included), to illustrate the versatility of this type of jewel. You probably have a silver or white-gold necklace that would work as well. The utility patent for the dress clip mechanism is here, shown below the name of Anthony E. Waller.USD$275.00USD$275.00
Pearl, Gemstone Bead & Rondelle Earrings
1950s Jewelry, Louis Rousselet Jewelry, Vintage EarringsPearl and gemstone earrings by Louis Rousselet are a welcome and versatile addition to any jewelry wardrobe. These 1950s French ear clips feature faux pearls in various sizes, with accents of ruby, sapphire, emerald and amethyst blown-glass leaves and rondelles. Though unsigned, these earrings match a signed necklace and earrings set that I have moved from my personal collection to offer for sale. The type of ear clip used is another clue to the creator, who usually signed his pieces with only paper hang tags. Rousselet was the premier faux pearl and bead maker in the first half of the 20th century. These earrings are a beautiful example of his work. Although the coating on some pearls appears to have bubbles, I think they are intended. Scroll down to see the magnificent necklace and earrings set in the same design.USD$345.00USD$345.00
Gemstone Fruit Salad Bar Brooch by Trifari
1930s Jewelry, Trifari Jewelry, Vintage Brooches & PinsThis crown Trifari brooch features a line of teardrop-shaped ruby, emerald, and sapphire-glass stones topped with and surrounded by diamanté. The molded glass was used by costume jewelry makers to imitate the Indian-carved gemstones – known as fruit salads or tutti frutti – which were so popular in the Art Deco era. Trifari made their first fruit salad pieces in the late-1930s, typically using acorn-shaped stones. This piece has the popular trio of colors but in a different shape with an added gem: the company called cabochons with a diamanté center shoe-buttons. The design of this rhodium-plated setting is similar to pieces from the company’s Ming series in the 1930s. The pin closes with a roll-over safety clasp. This elegant and timeless jewel goes with just about everything! Scroll down to see an early Trifari fruit salad double-clip brooch (Clip-Mates) in the same colors.USD$275.00USD$275.00
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About Barbara
TruFaux Jewels founder Barbara Schwartz is a passionate collector of vintage costume jewelry, who shares her love through her collections, through her writing, and directly with the women she helps adorn. She believes jewelry is meant to be worn, not stored in a drawer or bank vault. Barbara wants every woman who buys her pieces to feel extraordinary while wearing them.