Posted 7 years ago
Huffstutler
(23 items)
I recently picked up a piece that is a puzzle and wondered if anyone can identify it? It is exactly the same as the well known © copyrighted demi set made by Delizza & Elster (Juliana) for Sarah Coventry in 1964 called "Blue Lagoon". Except, mine uses black diamonds (gray) and clear stones and have no markings. The backs and soldering is the same between the two but come up empty looking for this unmarked version in gray. Can someone help me with age and identity? Thanks!
Nutsabotas6 is your man. He is the encyclopaedia for Sarah Coventry. Beautiful.
Here is a club which might be of help to you, too:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/discoveringjulianajewelry/info
@2 Efesgirl, thanks for the link but it looks like tat group is dead. It was dying off 4 years ago and their last post was in December 2015. Not even sure if I join that anyone is left to read it?
@3 nutsabotas6, I was wondering since its color is unique to this copyrighted design,if it could have been some sort of test piece? Or, like you said, Sara Coventry reissued the design... but could they have after the blue version run due to licensing agreements? People are adamant that D&E would have used the "figure eight" puddling on "all" of their jewelry, even those made for others , but I don't seem to notice that on the "Blue Lagoon", nor this identically made brooch in gray.
@5 Ms. CrystalShip...Thank you for your encouraging words and reference. I have almost zero knowledge about the ins and outs of costume jewelry but I can see differences in detail and to me, like you, there doesn't seem to be any between the blue and gray version. One thing came to mind. I wonder if after the SC run, there were metal backs already made up without stones and D&E issued some for themselves in different colors to use them up but without the © Coventry signature on them? But if that is so, why hasn't anyone with D&E Juliana reference books come forward to say there is a listing for it? Or, possibly, this is a leaked trial run version in gray not issued? Someone mentioned contacting one of the D&E family who knew the company's history. Wonder if they are still around? It will be wonderful to find out the answer and I will try and obtain one of the blue versions to to keep them together as reference since this is for my personal collection.
Thanks...
Eric
I just changed the photos and added one that shows a side by side of the stones.
One person said that this is not D&E because of the different size chatons between the two rows but there is a problem with that from what I see. That they are the same size on the blue and on the gray (at least to my eye). Note where I circled them. Also, there are 12 stones from 6-o'clock to 12-o'clock on the outer ring and 7 on the inner ring... the same on both. If they were the same size stones for both rings on the gray version, the numbers would not be the same due to laws of physics. You would end up with 6 stones or 5 in the inner ring by the time you went around the circle. What do you think?
I did hear from someone else who believes that this is definitely a D&E... possibly a design they were offering to other customers before SC made a deal for the Blue Lagoon? Or afterwards?
Ms.CrystalShip, I just realized you said that you saw this same exact brooch made in fruit salad colors? Do you still have that link for me to see? D&E did make some other jewelry for Sarah Coventry but not other colors in the Blue Lagoon style that I know of. Possibly swapped stones on their own? D&E made a red-white-blue set for them and a green rhinestone set. Believe the only 3 they made?