Distantdetails
Administrator
I have already posted this in the Private (only for Members) Forum, so you might be seeing this twice.
HOWEVER, I need to cast a very wide net on this project, and I hope you can help.
Sorry for the long title. I wanted to get all the names in, in case somebody is searching our database, and can help in this process!
I am researching an article on the early '70s Trifari designers:
Diane Love
Jonathan Bailey
Kunio Matsumoto
Jacques Phillippe
Andre Boeuf
These designers were very exciting, and most were at Trifari for very brief periods of time. Their TRUE designs often sell for many hundreds of dollars. HOWEVER, many people sell pieces attributing them to the designers, yet they are not the true designers of the piece(s).
The only designer who had his name on the piece(s) was Matsumoto, and, sometimes, Bailey.
I've been researching this for close to a year, and have found so much confusion/mistakes around these designers, even down to the spelling of their names. I decided to take a very detailed approach, much like writing my dissertation 45 years ago. The deeper I dig, the more I find we need answers. We all want to make sure we can attribute our pieces accurately.
Trifari kept a copy of every single piece it ever made. When Hallmark bought it, though, the employees were given free rein to take and give away any of the pieces in the vault. Such a loss.
I am hoping you can help me with anything (and nothing is non-helpful!!) you might know. Please don't underestimate what you might know. Even a "Well, I heard ...... about......." will be helpful to me.
Since the patenting system pretty much stopped with Alfred Philippe, we cannot look up these designers by patent.
Done already: researched Forum posts, collected all blogs I could find, reviewed Newspapers.com, written to people who might be helpful, written to people posting items as coming from these designers. Interesting finding: Most of the people I write to, if they reply, tell me they report it as Bailey or another designer, only because they saw it posted it that way by somebody else! We want the designers to receive accurate attributions for their items. And not be credited for something they didn't do. I have also studied the known designs, to get better acquainted with the details of their work.
Diane Love: easiest researched. Still alive, and has set up her own archive of Trifari costume jewelry. Would love an interview, if she is able. I believe she knows a lot about Andre Boeuf.
Andre Boeuf: Do you know anything about him? He became the house designer when Alfred Philippe left. I know very little about him or which designs were his, but I know people really liked him.
Jacques Philippe: reportedly the son of Alfred Philippe, but damned if I can find anything about him or attributed to him. Was he really a Trifari designer? What might you know?
Jonathan Bailey: I know a lot about him, but I'm starting to think he may have only designed one season for them. The Sculpturesque line is very clear-cut, even though many people attribute other thing to him, when it's not true (as far as I can tell) or very dubious.
Kunio Matsumoto: his pieces are all marked. I can find absolutely nothing about him post-Trifari. What happened to him, and how long was he really there? BTW, he was not a "previous architect" as most of the reports mention.
I've found out how truly time flies. The '70s was when I was young, and would have worn some of these pieces. If we don't grab ahold of any remaining information now, I fear it will be lost to the rest of us.
I give time to this every day. If you know anything, can you please let me know? All comments are welcome here, or you can Convo me. Anything at all!!!
Thank you so much. And if you want to be on a Convo group that provides updates on latest findings, just let me know. This has become a very hot market, and pieces are still findable.
Janine
HOWEVER, I need to cast a very wide net on this project, and I hope you can help.
Sorry for the long title. I wanted to get all the names in, in case somebody is searching our database, and can help in this process!
I am researching an article on the early '70s Trifari designers:
Diane Love
Jonathan Bailey
Kunio Matsumoto
Jacques Phillippe
Andre Boeuf
These designers were very exciting, and most were at Trifari for very brief periods of time. Their TRUE designs often sell for many hundreds of dollars. HOWEVER, many people sell pieces attributing them to the designers, yet they are not the true designers of the piece(s).
The only designer who had his name on the piece(s) was Matsumoto, and, sometimes, Bailey.
I've been researching this for close to a year, and have found so much confusion/mistakes around these designers, even down to the spelling of their names. I decided to take a very detailed approach, much like writing my dissertation 45 years ago. The deeper I dig, the more I find we need answers. We all want to make sure we can attribute our pieces accurately.
Trifari kept a copy of every single piece it ever made. When Hallmark bought it, though, the employees were given free rein to take and give away any of the pieces in the vault. Such a loss.
I am hoping you can help me with anything (and nothing is non-helpful!!) you might know. Please don't underestimate what you might know. Even a "Well, I heard ...... about......." will be helpful to me.
Since the patenting system pretty much stopped with Alfred Philippe, we cannot look up these designers by patent.
Done already: researched Forum posts, collected all blogs I could find, reviewed Newspapers.com, written to people who might be helpful, written to people posting items as coming from these designers. Interesting finding: Most of the people I write to, if they reply, tell me they report it as Bailey or another designer, only because they saw it posted it that way by somebody else! We want the designers to receive accurate attributions for their items. And not be credited for something they didn't do. I have also studied the known designs, to get better acquainted with the details of their work.
Diane Love: easiest researched. Still alive, and has set up her own archive of Trifari costume jewelry. Would love an interview, if she is able. I believe she knows a lot about Andre Boeuf.
Andre Boeuf: Do you know anything about him? He became the house designer when Alfred Philippe left. I know very little about him or which designs were his, but I know people really liked him.
Jacques Philippe: reportedly the son of Alfred Philippe, but damned if I can find anything about him or attributed to him. Was he really a Trifari designer? What might you know?
Jonathan Bailey: I know a lot about him, but I'm starting to think he may have only designed one season for them. The Sculpturesque line is very clear-cut, even though many people attribute other thing to him, when it's not true (as far as I can tell) or very dubious.
Kunio Matsumoto: his pieces are all marked. I can find absolutely nothing about him post-Trifari. What happened to him, and how long was he really there? BTW, he was not a "previous architect" as most of the reports mention.
I've found out how truly time flies. The '70s was when I was young, and would have worn some of these pieces. If we don't grab ahold of any remaining information now, I fear it will be lost to the rest of us.
I give time to this every day. If you know anything, can you please let me know? All comments are welcome here, or you can Convo me. Anything at all!!!
Thank you so much. And if you want to be on a Convo group that provides updates on latest findings, just let me know. This has become a very hot market, and pieces are still findable.
Janine