32 Costume Jewelry Signatures Worth Checking Before You Donate

Most of the jewelry that reaches a thrift store bin was sorted by weight, not by name. The marks that matter are small, often stamped on a clasp plate, the underside of a pin stem, or an oval tag soldered to the back, and they take about four seconds to check with a loupe and good light.

Some of these signatures move real money. Others are so plentiful that honesty is the kinder service. Both are worth knowing before a box goes out the door.

Crown Trifari

The crown resting over the letter T entered use around 1937 and remains the most commonly encountered vintage Trifari mark, usually stamped on the reverse of a brooch or inside an earring clip. A copyright symbol beside it places the piece after 1955, which narrows the date considerably.

Pave-and-enamel figurals with intact rhodium or gold-tone plating and no absent stones tend to trade in the low-to-mid hundreds when the set is complete; plain gold-tone pieces from the later 1960s often bring under fifty. Worn plating and replacement stones cut those figures sharply.

KTF

Before the crown, the firm marked pieces KTF, for Trifari, Krussman and Fishel, used roughly between 1935 and 1937. The window is short, which makes the mark scarcer than the crown and a genuine reason to look twice.

It turns up on the carved-glass fruit designs collectors call fruit salad and on heavy deco clips. Complete, unplated-through examples with original stones generally outrun equivalent crown-marked pieces, though condition governs everything.

Trifari Sterling Jelly Belly Brooches

Alfred Philippe, who came to Trifari in 1930 from Cartier, built figural animals around a large clear Lucite cabochon set into sterling during the wartime years when base metal was restricted. The reverse should read Trifari alongside Sterling, often with a design patent notation.

Penguins, sea lions, spiders and fish are the recognized forms, and reproductions are common enough that the metal mark matters more than the shape. Authenticated examples with an unclouded original center reach the high hundreds or beyond, while a yellowed or replaced center drops the piece far below that.

Eisenberg Original

Marked Eisenberg Original, or a script E where space was tight, this is the earlier and more desirable of the two main Eisenberg lines. Wartime restrictions pushed production into sterling around 1943, so a sterling stamp beside the signature is a useful dating anchor.

Large prong-set crystals and a heavy, sculptural feel distinguish the era from the lighter rhodium-plated pieces that followed. Strong examples with all stones present commonly sit in the mid hundreds, with big figurals higher; missing crystals and darkened metal push them down fast.

Eisenberg Ice

Block or script Eisenberg Ice appeared from around 1950 and returned in the 1990s, which is where honesty helps. The revival Classics line carried a tiny ’94 on some marks, and those later pieces are plentiful and modest in value.

Earlier Ice with crisp rhodium and full stone count still finds buyers, generally in the tens to low hundreds depending on scale and whether earrings survive with the brooch. A boxed complete set is worth notably more than the same pieces separated.

Miriam Haskell

Haskell pieces made before roughly 1947 carry no signature at all, so the earliest work is identified by construction: hand-wired seed pearls and beads sewn onto pierced or filigree backplates in a warm antiqued finish the firm called Russian gold. A semicircular plaque appeared around 1947, followed by a flat oval tag through the 1970s.

A 1975 slide clasp carries patent number 3,427,691, a rare gift for dating. Signed pieces with no absent beads run from the low hundreds upward, and unsigned pieces with filigree backs deserve suspicion rather than enthusiasm.

Schiaparelli

American-market Schiaparelli was distributed by the Lisner company of New York and carries a script signature from 1949 onward, with lowercase block letters on some earlier pieces and a copyright symbol after 1955. The house is identified by unfoiled iridescent stones collectors call watermelon, formally Vitrail Medium II, and by rough lava-textured cast elements.

Original hang tags read that the work was designed in Paris and created in America. A complete parure in good plating commands multiples of what the same brooch fetches alone, and intact unfoiled stones are essential to the price.

Coro Duette

The Duette is a mechanism rather than a style: two dress or fur clips seated in a removable pin frame so the pair reads as one brooch. Frames are typically stamped with patent number 1798867, sometimes alongside Sterling Corocraft or a pending notation, and the number itself is the fastest confirmation.

A Duette missing its frame is simply two clips, which is where most of the value goes. Complete sterling examples with tight clip springs and no stone loss generally reach the mid hundreds; base-metal versions sit well below that.

Corocraft Sterling

Corocraft was Coro’s better line, marked in script within a rectangle and frequently accompanied by the winged horse device that entered use in 1939. Sterling was standard on the line before roughly 1950, so the metal stamp separates the desirable era from later plated production.

Figural animals and large florals from the sterling years are the pieces to keep. Vermeil in good order with no rubbed-through gold wash and complete stones typically brings low-to-mid hundreds for a matched pin and earrings.

Vendome

Vendome was Coro’s upscale division, the name in use from the 1940s and most prominent through the 1950s and 1960s under designer Helen Marion, who worked with Tony Angeli from 1956. Plating quality is noticeably better than standard Coro, and many necklaces are hand-wired with Austrian crystal beads rather than glued.

Earrings often use an adjustable tension screw on the clip. Beaded cluster earrings remain inexpensive, while cubist-influenced brooches and elaborate rhinestone collars have documented sales in the hundreds when plating and beadwork are untouched.

Marcel Boucher

The earliest Boucher mark is MB set inside a Phrygian cap, which collectors regularly mistake for a bird’s head; later pieces read BOUCHER in capitals. Many carry a small inventory number stamped beside the signature, the closest thing the field has to a factory dating system.

Boucher founded his own firm in 1937 after supplying design patents to Mazer, and sterling made in Mexico during the war was marked Parisina. The Marboux line launched in 1955 as the budget alternative and is common; primary Boucher figurals in intact enamel reach the mid hundreds.

Hobé

Sterling Hobé from the late 1930s and 1940s occasionally carries a triangle containing three dots beside the signature, indicating manufacture by Ralph DeMassa in Providence. The firm advertised itself with the phrase jewels of legendary splendor during those same decades, and the sterling years remain the collecting peak even though the family continued into 1995.

Look for hand-set colored glass in filigree mountings and heavy vermeil. Matched suites and Asian-motif sterling brooches lead the market in the mid hundreds; plain sterling bows and beaded pieces are far more affordable.

Mazer Bros.

Joseph and Louis Mazer moved from shoe buckles into jewelry in 1927, and the mark reading MAZER BROS was used from 1946 to 1952, oddly enough after the brothers had already separated. Marcel Boucher contributed design patents to the firm before leaving in 1937, which explains the fine metalwork on early pieces.

Louis ceased production in 1952. Early Mazer with molded glass and crisp casting outperforms the later material, and darkened stones or a yellowed rhodium surface will reduce a piece by half or more.

Reja

The company opened in 1939 as Deja, lost a trademark suit brought by Du Jay, Inc., and announced the change to Reja in early 1941; it filed for bankruptcy in 1952. Marks include REJA, REJA STERLING, and versions abbreviating incorporated or registered, and the sterling pieces made before 1950 are usually enameled.

The Africana and Gardenesque lines, advertised in 1946 and 1947, are the ones collectors chase. The eleven-year run keeps supply low, and enameled sterling figurals with unchipped enamel routinely bring several hundred.

Pennino

Pennino Brothers ran from 1926 until 1966, and the marks include a lone P, PENNINO, PENNINO STERLING, Pennino Originals in script, and a version adding a patent-pending notation. Matched sets were sometimes marked on only one piece, so an unsigned earring beside a signed brooch is not automatically a mismatch.

Wartime production leaned heavily on sterling, much of it given a gold wash. Pieces from the 1930s and 1940s carry the highest prices, particularly patented tree brooches, with strong examples in the mid hundreds when the vermeil has not rubbed through.

Staret

Staret operated out of Chicago, and marked pieces are generally dated to roughly 1941 through 1947, a run short enough that any signed example deserves attention. The style is large, layered and unapologetic, with heavy rhinestone florals and figurals built in stacked planes rather than one flat setting.

Scarcity does most of the work here. Signed brooches in good plating with a full stone count are consistently three-figure pieces and sometimes considerably more, though foil deterioration behind the stones is common and materially reduces the price.

Schreiner of New York

Schreiner is identified as much by construction as by the oval plaque reading Schreiner New York, because a great many pieces left the workshop unmarked. The house set ordinary rhinestones upside down and unfoiled so the point faces outward, used large keystone-shaped stones in its ruffle brooches, and joined components with hook-and-eye wire so elements could be removed.

Dogtooth prongs and crimped stone cups support an attribution but never settle one alone. Signed ruffle brooches with all stones and no repairs sit firmly in the high hundreds, and unmarked attributions trade at a discount.

Stanley Hagler N.Y.C.

Hagler pieces carry an oval tag, earlier examples reading Stanley Hagler and later production adding NYC to the plaque. Construction is the real signature: glass beads and seed pearls hand-wired in layers onto gilt filigree in a deep antiqued finish, dense enough that the backplate barely shows.

Later work bearing the name Ian St Gielar comes from the same studio tradition. Complete multi-strand necklaces with no broken wires or absent beads reach the mid hundreds; a single loose cluster or a snapped wire is a meaningful deduction.

K.J.L.

Kenneth Jay Lane reissued favorite designs for decades, which makes the mark rather than the shape the dating tool. The earliest form separates the three initials with periods, in use through the 1960s and into the early 1970s, with production from Gem-Craft in Rhode Island or DeLizza and Elster in New York.

Kenneth wrapped around a centered copyright symbol and Lane indicates Saks exclusives of that period, while an unpunctuated KJL signals mid-2000s output. Early punctuated pieces in strong plating regularly reach the low hundreds; the later marks generally do not.

Joseff of Hollywood

Joseff supplied jewelry to film studios and sold a retail line signed in script as Joseff Hollywood or in block capitals as Joseff, usually stamped on a flat area at the back. The identifying trait is the semi-matte antiqued gold plating the workshop developed to cut glare under studio lighting, a finish that reads dull rather than bright in the hand.

Genuine screen-used pieces form a separate and far scarcer category. Signed retail brooches with the original finish intact bring the low-to-mid hundreds; a polished or replated piece loses much of its appeal.

Ciner

Emmanuel Ciner opened as a fine jewelry house in 1892 and moved into costume production during the Depression, and the consequence is that nearly everything genuine is signed. An unmarked piece matching a Ciner design is usually a period copy of lesser quality.

The marks stayed consistent for decades, so dating relies on the work: sterling with marcasite and glass cabochons in the 1930s, matte aged plating on Mogul-style cuffs by the 1950s, brighter plating and bold animals by the 1980s. Mid-century examples with the plating unpolished are the ones to set aside.

Hattie Carnegie

Carnegie jewelry production began in 1939, and the earliest mark, HC inside a diamond shape, is the one collectors want; the later oval cartouche reading Hattie Carnegie covers a much longer and more plentiful period. Kenneth Jay Lane worked for the house in the early 1960s, which accounts for some of the bolder later designs.

The prizes are the whimsical figurals of 1939 and the 1940s, along with Egyptian revival scarabs and pieces combining resin, enamel and baroque pearls. Rare figurals in unrestored condition run well into the hundreds; ordinary later brooches do not.

Nettie Rosenstein

Rosenstein signed in script with the full name, and remarkably the complete signature appears even on small earring clip backs, so a lack of space is no excuse for an unmarked piece. Sterling examples add a metal stamp, and the 1940s vermeil work with rhinestone detail is the collecting heart of the line.

She retired from fashion in 1961, though the jewelry continued under Sol Klein until 1975. Carved-head figurals and elephant pins in intact condition reach the high hundreds; 1950s and 1960s pendants and button earrings are genuinely affordable.

Weiss

Albert Weiss opened in 1942 after time at Coro and closed in 1971, with marks running from the early Weissco through Weiss and Weiss of New York. The firm bought finished jewelry from other makers, including the manufacturers behind Hollycraft and Eisenberg Ice, so no single construction trait identifies the line.

Quality therefore varies piece to piece. Simple enameled brooches are common and inexpensive; elaborate bib necklaces, thermoset clamper bracelets and the rhinestone Christmas designs are where the money sits, generally in the tens to low hundreds.

Hollycraft

Hollycraft did something almost no competitor did and stamped a year into the mark, producing signatures that read like Hollycraft Copr. 1950, which removes the guesswork entirely. Dated 1950s pieces in soft pastel rhinestones set in antiqued gold-tone are the recognized style, with iridescent stones appearing after 1955.

The catch is that stones were glued rather than prong-set, so absent stones are extremely common and each gap costs real money. Complete dated sets with every stone present typically bring the low hundreds; a brooch with three stones missing is a repair project.

Christian Dior by Kramer

Louis Kramer founded Kramer of New York in 1943 and the firm operated until 1980, marking pieces Kramer, Kramer of NY, or Kramer of NY City. The pieces made under license for the French house carry a distinct signature reading Christian Dior by Kramer, and that longer mark is the one that changes the number.

Austrian crystals and dense rhodium plating are typical of the better work. Signed Dior-by-Kramer parures in intact plating with original stones trade well into the hundreds, while plain Kramer pieces remain modest.

Sherman

Sherman and Company operated in Outremont, Montreal from 1949 to 1980, and Canadian collectors treat the signature seriously; the Royal Ontario Museum holds dozens of examples. Gustave Sherman used Swarovski crystal, heavier rhodium plating than most competitors, and unusual stone cuts and colors, with the name stamped on a plaque or clasp.

Aurora borealis pieces are strongly associated with the house. Signed sets with bright unpitted rhodium and no stone loss consistently reach the mid hundreds in the Canadian market; pitted plating or a single clouded stone reduces that quickly.

Regency

Regency was marketed by the Regina Novelty Company of New York, in production from roughly 1950 through 1970, with an oval plaque reading REGENCY or ©REGENCY JEWELS. Some beaded pieces left the factory with only a foil hang tag reading Fleur de Paris by Regency, and those tags are almost always gone by the time a piece reaches resale.

The house favored several rhinestone cuts in one color range, plus molded glass leaves and foiled cabochons. Sapphirine stones, art glass drops and complete sets carry the higher prices, usually in the low hundreds.

Florenza

The firm Dan Kasoff began marking pieces Florenza around 1950 and shut down in 1981; the name came from the founder’s mother Florence rather than the Italian city. Marks appear in three variants, including script outside a circle and block letters in an oval or rectangle.

The style is antiqued gold Victorian revival, heavy on cameos, ornate frames and figurals. Florenza also manufactured for Coro, Weiss and Hattie Carnegie, so casting quality beats the price.

Most pieces sit in the tens; unusual figurals with original antiquing climb into the low hundreds.

HAR

HAR was the mark of Hargo Creations of New York, a short-lived operation running from the 1950s into the 1960s that produced small quantities of frankly strange jewelry. The Fantasy series of 1959, with its genie faces, dragons and cobras built from Lucite, iridescent art glass and layered rhinestones, is the reason the signature is worth checking.

An Antiques Roadshow appraisal recorded in 2015 valued a genie bracelet at 1,200 dollars retail with a matching brooch at roughly 100. Condition is everything: cracked Lucite faces or missing glass elements remove most of that.

Juliana

Juliana pieces are not signed at all, which is the point. DeLizza and Elster applied only paper hang tags reading Juliana, and virtually every one was removed before wear, so attribution rests on construction: five-link and band bracelet assembly, heavy rivets used sparingly, figure-eight puddling where stone cups were soldered together, and open-back navettes.

An intact original hang tag adds a real premium over the identical piece without one. Verified five-link bracelets with a full stone count reach the low-to-mid hundreds; loose rivets and foil damage cut that substantially.

Sarah Coventry

This one is included for honesty rather than hope. Sarah Coventry came out of the Stuart family operation in Newark, New York, sold entirely through home parties from around 1949 until bankruptcy in 1984, which means an enormous quantity was made and most of it survives. Marks read SARAH COVENTRY or SARAH COV beside a copyright symbol.

The majority of pieces sell for under twenty-five dollars regardless of condition, with named lines such as Blue Lagoon doing marginally better. Donating a box of it is a reasonable decision, not a missed opportunity.

The Case for Turning Everything Over

The difference between a two-dollar brooch and a two-hundred-dollar brooch is frequently a stamp smaller than a grain of rice, sitting on a clasp plate or the flat back of a pin stem where nobody looks. Hang tags are the cruelest part of this, because the paper slip that would have settled an attribution was the first thing anyone removed before wearing the piece.

What remains is construction: how the stones sit, whether the backs are open, whether the wires were hand-turned or the settings glued.

None of this argues for keeping everything. Plenty of these signatures are common, and a few of them are worth less than the postage to sell them, which is worth saying plainly rather than implying that every marked piece is a windfall.

The useful habit is smaller than a full appraisal and takes almost no time: turn each piece over, read what is actually stamped there, and only then decide which box it belongs in.

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