BROOCHES, Stick Pins & Hat Pins OH MY!

Get to Know Costume Jewelry and the Science Behind It

- PAT RAIA

Just before Hurricane Ian leveled her Fort Myers, Florida home, Sheran Behling Little packed away her extensive cache of costume jewelry and stowed it safely against the storm. “I have earrings, brooches and necklaces that all came to me when my father worked for Napier for about 10 years in the 1970s,” Little recalls. “And I still wear it all and get compliments on it all.”

WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Once a way to keep little girls quiet on rainy afternoons, sifting through box after box of inherited, generally inexpensive, so-called costume jewelry has become a pursuit for anyone of any age who wants to pin on, clip on or otherwise recapture a piece of yesterday’s elegance through what used to be called junk jewelry.

In the process, the pieces have caught the eyes of collectors who appreciate their beauty and history even if they don’t have sentimental connections to them.

“People of all ages, educational and social backgrounds collect costume jewelry,” says Melinda Lewis, who with Pamela Siegel established Costume Jewelry Collectors International, a network of costume jewelry aficionados who connect online via social media and at conventions throughout the United States. “My analogy would be that collecting costume jewelry has a shared love language understood by all fascinated by it - the study never gets old.”

HISTORY ATTRACTS

In fact, it’s history that attracts would-be collectors to costume jewelry in the first place. After that, potential value makes those once so-called throw-away trinkets even more attractive.