Trifari Vintage Jewelry Through the Years - Part 1

Trifari Vintage Jewelry Through the Years - Part 1

If you collect Trifari Vintage Jewelry, you may already be familiar with jewelry from the various eras. If you are a newer collector who would like to learn to identify the styles and designs, it's helpful to have an overview of Trifari Vintage Jewelry over the years.

As mentioned in my last post, when Trifari hired renowned Fine Jewelry Designer Alfred Philippe in 1930, it began an era of Trifari dominance in the industry, which lasted for many years. Philippe had previously been designing High End Fine Jewelry for companies like Cartier and Van Cleef and Arples, and brought his sense of luxury and style to Trifari. These early Trifari Philippe pieces were meant to replicate the look of Fine Jewelry designs using Costume Jewelry materials.

During the 1930's and 1940's "Diamante" Jewelry was very popular. These styles usually had the look of Diamonds with metals that resembled Gold and Silver or Platinum. The designs were usually very ornate with scrolls and floral spray designs. During that time, dress clips were very popular, and many costume jewelry firms, including Trifari made beautiful ornate. dress clips that had the look of Fine Jewelry and Diamonds. Few of these are in circulation today, however, many of Alred Philippe's patent drawings are available on the Google Patent Search:

Trifari Jewelry Patents Files by Alfred Philippe

The bracelet pictured below is from the early 1950's and includes the scrolled design element that was also popular with the earlier diamante jewelry.



Although this bracelet uses red rhinestones, versions of this design were also produced with clear (diamante) rhinestones and stones of other colors.

Other Examples of Trifari Diamante Jewelry:


Small Trifari Diamante Butterfly Pin, circa late 1940s to early 1950's


Trifari "Twinkle" Star Brooch and Earrings Set, Christmas, 1952

As mentioned in the last post, Alfred Philippe was head designer at Trifari until his retirement in 1968 and his designs can still be found today among Trifari Vintage Jewelry sellers and collectors. Additional Trifari Vintage Jewelry designed by Alfred Philippe and other designers will be featured in future posts, along with more photos.

Figurals have always been popular and continue to be so today. Trifari was also well known for its exquisite figural jewelry. I also plan to discuss Trifari figural jewelry and post pictures for your viewing enjoyment. In the meantime, feel free to browse through the Trifari Jewelry available in my stores:
My Classic Jewelry Etsy Shop
My Classic Jewelry eBay Store

Thank you, and have a nice day!
Christine