Alfred Philippe's Mr. Monkey of 1939, in rhodium-plated silver metal with crystal rhinestones and glossy enamel. This is a dress clip from the years when Trifari was making its most ambitious work, and Brunialti rates...
A fish trailing bubbles, in vermeil over sterling — one of the 1940s figurals Trifari made during the war years, when restrictions on base metals pushed the house into sterling and, as it turned out, into some of its ...
The companion to the citrine fish, and the same 1940s Trifari figural in vermeil over sterling — from the war years, when restrictions on base metals pushed the house into sterling and into some of its finest work. He...
An Art Deco clamshell in vermeil over sterling, set with blue rhinestone. This is Joseph Mazer working in the 1940s, when wartime metal restrictions sent the good houses to silver and the results were often the best w...
Mazer was one of the master design houses of its era, and this brooch is the reason people say so: a cactus flower in a basket, built with real dimension, in citrine amber and emerald green rhinestone on a gold-plated...
Trifari made very few sterling necklaces, and almost all of them come from the early 1940s, when wartime restrictions on base metals pushed the house into silver. Those pieces are among the most prized things a Trifar...
The companions to Alfred Philippe's "Two Birds on a Branch," and considerably harder to find than the brooch they were made for. Two birds perched on a branch in silver rhodium, worked with multicolored enamel, garnet...
A proud American eagle above the words REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR, cut through in bold block capitals with a pearl set at the center. This is Staret's 1942 patriotic brooch, and it is one of the great achievements of the f...
A large floral brooch with berries from Trifari's Esplanade collection, in a gold-plated finish set with topaz rhinestone. The Esplanade pieces came out once a year at Christmas, in very limited numbers and only to a ...
A 1960s Crown Trifari Jewels of India brooch with its matching clip earrings, in a gold-tone finish where ruby red rhinestone is set against gleaming faux pearl. The contrast is the entire design, and the pattern is a...
The sapphire companion to Trifari's ruby Jewels of India pattern: a 1960s brooch with its matching clip earrings in a gold-tone finish, sapphire blue rhinestone set against gleaming faux pearl. It is a rare pattern wi...
A turbaned genie in gold plate and enamel, and the whole argument for why Trifari is still collected sixty years on. Design like this is the reason the house's name survived when so many of its contemporaries did not:...
A whimsical griffin in gold plate set with cabochons, from the fantasy animals Kenneth Jay Lane produced early in his career — the group that made his name. The griffin proved a favorite with his collectors, and Lane ...
Kenneth Jay Lane went on to sell panther cuffs by the thousand, and you can find them anywhere. This is one of the originals, and quite possibly the original that started it. It is a central book piece in Lane's own F...
From Trifari's 1966 Cocktail Hour collection, a swaying seaweed design in the house's gold-tone Trifanium finish, surfaced in grey mother of pearl and set through with sparkling crystal rhinestones. The brooch is larg...
The third of the Starflight brooches, and the warmest of them: a gold-tone burst set with sparkling fuchsia and crystal rhinestones throughout, built dimensional rather than flat. The Starflight series was among the l...
Diane Love began designing for Trifari in 1970, and her brief was unusual for a costume house: interpret historic art rather than decorate. This pendant is that idea at its most direct — Sekhmet and Osiris rendered in...
Thirteen stick pendants on a sterling necklace, and the whole thing reverses: one face laid with several varieties of inlay stone, the other with dazzling faux opal, and each side has its own matching pair of stick ea...
A crocodile in white Italian enamel over 925 sterling, from Belle Etoile's 2013 Coccodrillo collection. The enamel is laid thick and glossy enough that the texture of the animal reads at a glance, which is the whole t...
Golden amber Bakelite with forest green Bakelite roses inset into the carving — two colors worked together, which means the maker cut the recesses and fitted the green in by hand before carving the whole thing back. T...
Green and blue Bakelite, carved deep in a pineapple pattern and worked by hand — the crosshatch is cut rather than pressed, which is what gives it the shadow it has. Two-color Bakelite is harder to find than single, a...
Translucent amber red Bakelite of the type known as Connomex, heavily carved by hand and worked the whole way around rather than patterned on the surface. Held to the light it reads almost like glass, which is what se...
A bear worked in genuine tiger's eye, Acoma jet and picture jasper inlay, set in sterling silver and hung on a 20-inch necklace of 4mm sterling beads. Inlay this clean is the hardest thing in the medium: every stone h...
Ciner's homage to Jean Schlumberger's elephant for Tiffany & Co., rendered in the house's own idiom: a regal Moghul elephant, fully dimensional, and made to the standard Ciner was known for. Ciner is the rare Amer...
