Lea Stein Jewelry

Jude Clarke writes:

Lea Stein is a name synonymous with collectable celluloid jewelry and yet very little is known about this lady whose distinctive fashion accessories have become a collecting craze.

According to Ginger Moro in her classic book on ' European Costume Jewelry', Lea Stein and her husband Fernand Steinberger began producing their unique celluloid brooches, rings and bracelets back in the 1950s in Paris.

Many sources of information persist in the wrongly held belief that the jewelry was designed in the 1930s; it was not, although of course many of the earlier pieces borrow from elegant Art Deco imagery. Lea contributed the artistic designs and Fernand the complicated and time-consuming techniques of ' sandwiching' layers of fabric and laminating sheets of plastic together.Animals figure prominently as designs for the many oversize brooches; panthers, tortoises, owls, cats and insects are all very popular as is the three- tiered fox with curvaceous tail and slanty eyes available in many color variations.

Later editions reflect more contemporary themes, such as skateboarders, a girl with a hoop and cartoon-like characters. Price variations for pieces of Lea Stein jewelry can be quite enormous and arbitrary, so it really does pay to shop around both on the Internet and in shops and at antiques fairs (most pieces are priced by dealers at around $100 each). A fox pin (variations of the fox are among the most common) available for $285 on one site on the Internet can easily be found for about $70 or sometimes even less.

Production ceased in 1980 but in 1991 Lea Stein issued "Second Editions" of some of the brooches. Apparently one of the ways to distinguish between them is that the "Second Editions" have the pin riveted to the back of the piece rather than heat-fused as in the earlier examples. Whilst there is still confusion over dates and different 'editions' of the items it's best to check with the seller for further details. There was talk, a few years ago, of a book coming out on Lea Stein jewelry. If so, it's very eagerly awaited by the many collectors of Lea Stein jewelry around the world. Their distinctive size (many of the brooches are between 6 – 8 cms long) and design guarantees any collector and wearer to stand out in the crowd.

More info @ www.collectorcafe.com