Please help me date these vintage earrings

grandmascloset

grandmascloset

Alumni
I love these! They are rhinestone with black plastic, clip on backs and are unmarked. They are 4 inches long apiece. I've used them as 30's earrings but I don't think they are that old. Thanks!


 
I bet they are 1970s Deco revival. Biba apparently used to sell a line of Deco style jewellery like this but it wasn't stamped Biba, and is often resold as real 1920s-30s jewellery. I know this only because a woman who donated a lot of things to our Fashion History Museum sold most of the jewellery she had bought at Biba as 1970s Deco style jewellery at a house sale, but later found much of it listed on eBay as authentic 1920s/30s Deco jewellery. Anyway, I am not sure if these are Biba, but the trend for making Deco jewellery in the 1970s was certainly taken up by them!
 
I was thinking 70s or 80s due to the clips and size, but I think Jonathan has a good point about 70s Deco Revival. I don't think those clips were available in the 30s or 40s, and these aren't a 50s or 60s style really.

Hollis
 
The earing findings (clips) were first used in the late '40's or '50's - can't see the detail well enough to really know for sure. Similar clips are still used today so that does not date these to the '40's or '50's - just means not earlier than. Definitely not '30's.

There was a lot of Deco Revival jewelry and beads and rhinestone rondelles - (the band around the lower bead ) used in the 1950's so these could be '50's but they could also be '70's or later. One of the things that makes me think maybe earlier is that the backs of the lower part is smooth and almost reads "pot metal" in the photo. That part does look like it could have been made from old stock dress clips! Hard to really say without handling them.

They kind of seem like a "marriage" to me - like the bottoms were added. The photo is a little blurry and it might help if you could get a more focused and closer shot.
Linn
 
I have really good luck using a flat bed scanner but I tweak my photos using photoshop elements software - and re-size them. When I take photos or a scan, I use a white background - a linen napkin covering the piece on the scanner - and shoot with my digital camera on my white bed-cover or tablecloth. Once in awhile I do not cover a piece which gives you a black background. I have my camera on the auto setting and I use flash - but you could experiment.

Are you using any software after you download the photo to your computer? I think part of the problem might be that the photo is too big. You might try to resize your photo and sharpen it, if you the some software to do that.

I'm sure others will offer suggestions, too.

Linn
 
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