Thursday, November 30, 2017

Juliana Christmas Jewelry Rarest of the Rare

So right now you are probably thinking why is she saying Juliana Christmas brooches are the rarest of the rare.  I see Christmas brooches listed as Juliana (D and E) all the time.  Well they are not Juliana (D and E). Many people think that since Juliana made so much jewelry over so many different years there must be tons of Christmas brooches of theirs running around.  Well there is not and here is why.


From Mr DeLizza's book on page 70 in the chapter dealing with the 1964-1966 period he states and I quote: "We made a group of Christmas pins - something we did not regularly do - but I had picked up a new customer from a friend of mine, at 225 Firth Avenue, the gift building."  

The first three brooches shown here are the Juliana (D and E) Christmas brooches that had been found at the time my book was published.  Since that time one more Christmas brooch has been found (the double bell) and we are still on the hunt for the last one, the double candle).  We knew what Christmas brooches there were we just needed to find them.  Unfortunately I can't take credit for finding any of them first.

The colors on all the brooches are the same it just looks different as the photos were taken by different photographers.

These Christmas brooches have actually been very easy to identify as for sure being Juliana once found.  All have the traits we look for in Juliana Jewelry.

The wreath has a square wire wrap over holding the candle and also the candle stem is made of figure 8's.  

The bells also have square wire hangers for the crystal beads.  


The Christmas tree has a cast stem.

The holly leaf also has the cast stem.

For those who are wondering why do I consider this cast stem a Juliana trait, note it is a certain design of the cast stem that is the Juliana trait.  In Mr DeLizza's book on page 31 he stated and I quote" "Father also had Tony Catoni, our model-Maker, make us strips of 18pp castings".

I hope this Christmas blog has helped to clear up the idea that there are tons of Juliana (D and E) Christmas brooches out there.  There are not.  Now there are items that are done in Christmas type colors but they are not specifically Christmas themed in design.

Next week we will talk about Juliana Cameo's.  You may think you know their cameo's but there are many more designs than you realize.