Vintage 2024 Signed Crown Trifari © Green Thermoplastic Pendant Necklace with Clear Pave Swirl

Vintage Signed Crown Trifari © Green Thermoplastic Pendant Necklace with Clear Pave Swirl - This moss green pendant has an "end of day Bakelite" swirled or marbled effect but 2024 I don't believe it is Bakelite. Clear pave set in silvertone sweeps around one side and ends at center top. 24" silvertone snake chain. Signed Crown Trifari and © on the back of the pendant, which measures approximately 1.5" in diameter, and about 1/2" thick at thickest point. Excellent condition, the pave is nice and sparkly, and the design execution is of the usual high quality. This was also done in black and probably other colors as well. I have photoed it both full length and with the chain doubled around the neck form for easier viewing. Very pretty! This style was originally priced at $8.00 in 1974 and the color was referred to as "jade" and was done in goldtone without the pave rhinestones. The general style name for this and several other similar designs in pendant necklaces, brooches and earrings was "The Seventy Fourcasters"! (Info courtesy of the 1974 fall-winter Trifari catalog. ) One would assume the silvertone and pave version was done the following spring but I haven't any corroboration of this, and could have been done earlier as well.

Gustavo Trifari, an Italian immigrant to the US, may have started his business with an uncle, and called the business Trifari and Trifari, but apparently Gustavo and the uncle parted company within a few years. Gustavo went into business with Leo Krussman somewhere around 1918, and were later joined by Carl Fishel. (Apparently the mark TK in a circle has been found in a 1922 Jewelers' Circular, which would infer than Fishel was not part of the organization at that time.) TKF was an abbreviation for the last names (Trifari, Krussman, and Fishel) and the first substantiated use of this mark, a large T flanked by a smaller K and F, is about 1935. Later, it was decided to use just the word "Trifari" rather than the more cumbersome three names, as the owners felt it sounded elegant and European. A crown has been used with the word Trifari in both the advertising and actually on the signature stamping, usually on the more expensive pieces, though the absence or presence of the crown itself may not be of any significance.

Many collectors feel that Trifari jewelry, especially those pieces from the 1930's-1960, are among the finest pieces of costume jewelry ever produced. Though Alfred Philippe was head designer for many years and signed most of the design patents issued to Trifari, a number of top notch designers worked for the company, such as Alfred Spaney, Norman BelGeddes, Bennetto Panetta, Joseph Wuyts, and later, Marcella Saltz, Diane Love, Jean Paris, Jonathan Bailey, Kunio Matsumoto and Aldo Cipullo. One designer in the 1960's started his own company (Dewees) and after it's closing, returned to Trifari for a short time before retiring. When one reads of the extensive quality control used in the production of the pieces, it is no wonder they often remain as beautiful today as they were when produced. It is interesting to see how, over the years, the same designs were varied, with and without stones, with and without enameling, and in various stones colors if stones were used.