1943 Corocraft “Josephine Baker” Brooch

Josephine Baker was singer, dancer, wartime agent, and civil-rights force — and in 1943, at the height of her fame, Corocraft made her into a brooch. This is that piece: vermeil over sterling silver, painted in multicolored enamel and set with pavé crystal, a small portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most electric figures. It is important enough to sit on the back cover of Brunialti’s American Costume Jewelry, where it takes the full five stars of five — the highest the authors give. Consider the condition: seventy-six years old, the gold wash still bright, the enamel nearly whole, every stone in place. Pieces like this rarely come to market, and when they do they’re seldom this well kept. You are not buying a figural brooch. You are buying a portrait, made in her own lifetime, of a woman who refused to be anything but herself.