Vintage Hobe Costume Jewelry

Hobé Cie was founded in 1887 by goldsmith Jacques Hobé, but when costume-jewelry collectors think of Hobé, they picture the tasselled and beaded necklaces made by Jacques’ son, William, who established an American offshoot of the company in 1927. That put Hobé at the beginning of the American costume-jewelry boom between the two world wars.

In fact, some scholars believe that Hobé actually had a hand in the phrase “costume jewelr...y” itself. After the younger Hobé landed in New York, but before he started his company, one of the his first assignments was to make costumes and jewelry for the "Ziegfeld Follies." According to some historians, Florenz Ziegfeld described the jewelry that accompanied Hobé’s costumes as costume jewelry.