I’ve recently gone down an ebay rabbit hole, fascinated by three costume jewelry brands: Jonette Jewelry, American Jewelry & Chain and Danecraft. I started collecting a few JJ (Jonette Jewelry) pieces and am impressed with the quality of these mass produced castings. I am also baffled by the variety of whimsical and literal subject matter. An outsider studying 20th century American culture through costume jewelry would be convinced that we were obsessed with cats chasing mice and fish. I guess current internet culture does demonstrate our obsession with cats. I now work as a designer and model maker for a big jewelry company in California and I also wonder at the number of models and molds each of these companies created just dedicated to one particular theme.

The following pins depicting a cat and  fishbowl were ALL MADE BY ONE COMPANY, Jonette Jewelry. I imagine every few years they felt they had to revamp this popular theme or give the consumer options within this theme.  Each of these pins was available in different finishes and you can see the last one even has added color, definitely elevating the production cost. (I’m not even going to get started on the variety of cat and mouse jewelry because it’s too vast!)

JONETTE JEWELRY CAT AND FISHBOWL PINS

I like to imagine a JJ design meeting: “Those jerks at Danecraft have a cool cat couple in a car?? We’ll show them!”

It’s not just cats. Cows are thoroughly represented, as are nurses, real estate brokers, wizards, pretty much every aspect of human, animal and fantasy life. There are many other costume jewelry companies that represented these themes but I just happened to focus my ebay searches on these three.

But, back to cats. Again from Jonette Jewelry. Maybe you want a cat chasing a butterfly? Or a cat chasing a turtle? You decide! We will have a model maker carve the original model, we’ll create a mold and go into production!

Here, from American Jewelry Company and Jonette Jewelry are options if you want a cat drinking from a toilet.

Jonette Jewelry, probably my favorite of these three companies started in 1935 and ceased production in 2006. AJC existed from 1927 to 1997. Danecraft continues on and even though they have run sophisticated magazine ads over the years their website seems to have stopped evolving at HTML 2.0.

Danecraft 1978 magazine advertisement:

Danecraft’s website today:

Well, this is just the introduction to my new obsession. I’m going to do a separate post on my own budding collection of costume jewels and also share images of some of my favorites that I don’t yet own or plan to own because they’re just too silly even for me.

-Rebs

The Contenders

Fight Night Highlights:

Rudy was declared the winner after Ronnie got distracted by a feather and wandered away.

Today, after 30 years on the Upper East Side I settled in to my new home in Los Angeles. I will continue to write from here but for my farewell to the UES I am going to reveal some never before seen faces…

The building I grew up in, 4 East 88th Street, has been referred to as NYC’s finest example of neo-federalist architecture by the Carnegie Hill Neighbors Architectural Guide.  Designed by Electus D. Litchfield and erected in 1922, the building features a “broken pediment” whose void, just atop the awning, is filled by a carved stone “potpourri” of heads.

No one seems to know for sure who these heads represent. It has been suggested that they are American patriots or that one is Electus Litchfield, the architect himself. I have also only read or heard the head count at four to five even though at least four are clearly visible from the street. But, lucky for me the sculpture sits in one of my family’s windows and during some recent construction I leaned out the window (over a scaffolding and set off an alarm) and photographed the heads as best I could.

There are 8 heads. They go all the way around as if the sculpture was meant to sit on a table or in a garden with all sides visible, and not up against a wall.  Unfortunately, their condition has deteriorated over the years and you can see some repairs are also deteriorating. So far I have looked for Litchfield’s records regarding this building in his archives at Columbia University’s Avery Library to try to find out where he acquired the sculpture. The records for this building were not at Avery but there is a chance they could be in the archives at the Met Museum – a task for when I visit my parents in NYC or maybe a task for Christopher Gray.

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you all eight heads.

1. The Topper…

2. Maybe George Washington.

3.

4.

5.

6. Yes, 5 and 6 are different heads.

7.

8.

 
Me with the Topper.

Thursday, October 4, 2012
I’m moving to LA in January so I’m going to try to actually journal these last few months as a New Yorker and Upper East Sider.

Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue.

I often see this guy walking past Dean & Deluca around 10am.

Strong Hair.

I kind of love these Zuki coats, but wish they weren’t made from real fur.
Photo from zuki.com

that whenever I see an Afghan dog on the street (not very often) it reminds me of Sally Kellerman’s character in Back to School which is a nice thing to remember.  It’s not just the hair, it’s the attitude.

Afghan Hound Photo by Mary Bloom

Just sayin’.

I recently stayed a few nights at The Franklin Hotel on 87th Street between Lexington Ave and Third Ave.  Been walking by it for years, used to see the bellhop in a top hat.  Haven’t seen that in a long time there was no top hatted bellhop during my stay.  I have a feeling The Franklin has a gritty, story-filled New York City history.  The building was constructed around 1929 and the neon sign looks old and classic.  When I told people I would be staying there, most asked in a disgusted tone, why would I want to stay there?  I guess it doesn’t appear from the outside to be a really “nice” hotel but I was looking for something with a certain old New York vibe.  I almost didn’t stay there because when I sought out more information The Franklin Hotel website painted a picture of a chic contemporary boutique hotel, no mention of any past.  There were mixed reviews on Yelp and I think anyone looking for a contemporary boutique hotel could be disappointed.  The hallways and parts of rooms like the nook for the sink in my bathroom were datedly small.  But for anyone looking for that old New York feeling like myself, The Franklin was everything I wanted it to be.  Perhaps the coolest part is the elevator with an art deco motif in the cab.  The doorsknobs to the elevator on each floor have inlaid mother-of-pearl or abalone bits.  Mosaic room numbers.  I wish the Franklin would market its historical aspects more.  I want to know who stayed there, who died there, and if I knew its stories I swear I would stay there more often.  Anyone know any Franklin stories?  Please add in the comments.  Here are some photos.

The elevation plan is on display in the entrance, so….what gives?

A blurry photo I took several years ago of the bellhop.

I’ve already written about this on my personal website and facebook, but it’s actually relevant, so, I’m excited to share that I’ve finally been featured in Carnegie Hill News, the newsletter put out by Carnegie Hill Neighbors.  I’ve been reading it for years and now my time has come!