Vintage copper jewelry - The Herald-Times
Collecting vintage jewelry is highly rewarding, and vintage copper from the 1950s and early 1960s may make the most satisfying of jewelry collectibles. This article is illustrated with pictures of gorgeous copper jewelry owned by Lee Sandweiss, a Bloomington author and editor known for her wonderful articles about vintage homes in The Herald Times and also as a collector of vintage copper.
Hand-made copper jewelry is wearable, highly imaginative art that ages beautifully. Moreover, copper jewelry is widely available but not too costly because it was semi-mass-produced but made without expensive gold or silver or gemstones. Moreover, the top makers were few and are thus easy to learn about so you can separate what is actually vintage and high quality items from more recent reproductions. Becoming knowledgeable about one’s collected jewelry greatly enhances one’s pleasure.
Two giants stand atop a mountain of midcentury copper jewelry: Francisco Rebajes of New York and Jerry Fels, founder of both Renoir of California and Matisse Ltd. While their jewelry is costume, not precious, it is always made of solid copper, not a coated base metal. Coated items were probably produced in China in the 1970s or later. Jewelry-making after World War II benefited from advances in purifying and manipulating metals. This in turn contributed to the outstanding characteristic of 1950s jewelry: being made by hand. Copper items from Rebajes and Renoir were always hand finished. Many pieces were wholly made by the master artists and others designed by them and produced under the artists’ supervision. Nearly all were signed.
In the 1950s, Francisco Rebajes sold his unusual figurative copper jewelry from his own store on 5th Avenue in New York City. On the other coast, from 1948 to 1951, Jerry Fels sold copper jewelry marked “Hand Made by Renoir of California” through many department stores, and then in 1952, introduced Matisse enameled copper jewelry. Those midcentury items that had a master’s touch are certainly the most valued today.
The 1950s were nicknamed the Fab ’50s for the era’s love of glitz and glamour. After war shortages ended, excess in personal decoration was possible, and mass-produced jewelry of that time often used fake jewels and masses of rhinestones to achieve sparkle. However, midcentury copper jewelry was different: The best copper pieces were unique art works and individually hand-finished; they had unusual designs never seen before, and did not incorporate clusters of rhinestones. They were envisioned as wearable art inspired by the arts and crafts and art deco traditions.
Francisco Rebajes made truly exceptional art jewelry starting in the 1930s and peaking in American sales in the mid-1950s. His pendant necklaces, cuff bracelets and exotic pins often incorporated mask-like faces and other unusual design elements. On his 1940s and 1950s jewelry, he attached twists of wires, gears, large beads and curving bits of copper to pins and cuff-style bracelets. He also made wide leather belts decorated in copper as wells as cuff links and cigarette cases that were widely copied by other manufacturers. Rebajes continued to producing his figurative jewelry and other art work based on the Mobius Strip in Europe during the 1970s and 1980s, winning a French Academy of Science award. He died in 1990.
Jerry Fels’ Renoir of California made copper jewelry that reflected art deco design elements of geometric squares and circles, balls, metal ribbons, arrow-shapes and other abstract forms, always with a practical wearability. Most famous is a Renoir copper pin consisting of a painter’s palette with brushes. Renoir of California, based in Santa Monica, continued in business from 1946 to 1964. Beginning in 1952, Fels also created Matisse, a company specializing in colored enameling of jewelry. It made original pieces as well as enameled some Renoir designs. For example, Matisse added colored splotches of paint to the Renoir artist palettes, boosting their popularity. In addition, enameled maple leaf pins and other leaf patterns were especially desirable Matisse designs. Stars such as Lana Turner and Betty Davis wore Matisse pieces, giving them high visibility. Matisse sold some of its jewelry as parures (matching sets of necklace, earrings and pin), and those sets are highly collectible today.
All 1950s and early 1960s Renoir and Matisse jewelry should have a copyright symbol on the back in cursive script. Like Renoir, Matisse also closed in 1964. Silver jewelry marked “Sterling Sauteur Renoir” was made after 1958, but by the late 1960s, virtually all costume jewelry was coming from China. Rebajes and Fels were world-class artists who worked largely, but not solely, in copper jewelry, and they have influenced decades of subsequent jewelry makers. Wearable jewelry is meant to be worn, and good pieces will probably stir up a great deal of conversation.
Susan Eastman has received gifts of copper bracelets over the years, possible meant to help her stay in good health. Sadly, none proved to be treasures by Rebajes, Renoir or Matisse. Look in HeraldTimesOnline.com for more pictures of Vintage Copper Jewelry.
