Retro Jewelry: What Wartime Scarcity Made
For fifteen years jewelry got large, golden and architectural. It was not a change of taste so much as a change of supply: platinum was requisitioned for the war, good stones were unobtainable, and designers made scale do the work that materials used to do.
Retro is the period between Art Deco and the mid century, roughly 1935 to 1950. It is the last era of antique jewelry that most people can still find affordably, and the one most often mistaken for something later.
Why it looks the way it does
Three constraints, all external to design.
Platinum was requisitioned. The United States declared platinum a strategic material in 1942 and its use in jewelry was effectively prohibited for the duration. Designers moved to gold, and because gold is softer and less able to hold fine settings, forms became larger and more sculptural to compensate.
Good stones were unobtainable. European supply lines closed. Where the Deco years used calibre-cut sapphires and rubies by the dozen, the Retro years used synthetic rubies and sapphires openly, large citrines, aquamarines and amethysts, which were available, and comparatively few diamonds.
Hollywood set the scale. Jewelry had to read on screen and across a room. Big, bold and photographic beat fine and intricate.
Add to that the machinery of the period: gold could be rolled, folded, tubed and shaped into forms that looked like industrial design because industrial design was what everybody was looking at.
The signatures
Rose and yellow gold together. Rose gold in particular is the colour of the period. Two or three colours of gold in one piece is common and deliberate.
Scale. Wide bracelets, big cocktail rings, brooches the size of a hand. Frequently hollow or built from tube and sheet, because solid gold at that size would be unwearable and unaffordable.
Architectural motifs. Scrolls, ribbons, fans, bows rendered as though carved rather than drawn. Gas-pipe and tank-track bracelets, so called for exactly the reasons the names suggest. Buckle motifs. Snail curves.
Synthetic coloured stones, used without embarrassment. A large synthetic ruby in a 1940s cocktail ring is period-correct, not a fault, and the piece should be described honestly as such.
Aquamarine and citrine, in large step-cut stones, which were available when better material was not.
Clip brooches, often designed as a pair that also joins to form a single larger brooch. A characteristic Retro trick.
Telling Retro from the 1980s
The 1980s revived big gold, and confusion between the two is the most common misidentification in this period. Four checks.
- The findings. A Retro clip brooch uses a double-prong clip mechanism of the period. Earrings will be clip or screw backs, since pierced ears were unfashionable until the 1960s. A 1940s piece with modern posts has been converted.
- The gold. Retro pieces are usually 14 carat in American work and 18 carat in European, and the rose gold is a soft warm tone from copper. 1980s revival gold is frequently 9 carat or plated and the colour is harder.
- The construction. Retro hollow forms are built from sheet and tube, soldered, with visible seams inside. 1980s equivalents are cast, and the interiors show casting texture.
- The stones. Period synthetics of the 1940s are flame-fusion Verneuil stones, which under magnification show curved growth lines rather than the straight angular banding of natural stones. Modern synthetics show neither.
What it is worth
Retro sits in an unusual position. It is not yet antique, the pieces are frequently large, and the gold content is often substantial, which means many Retro pieces have a high metal floor. That has protected them from being scrapped, and it also means the market rarely values them far above metal unless the design or the maker is exceptional.
The exceptions are worth knowing. Signed work by Van Cleef and Arpels, Cartier, Boucheron, Trabert and Hoeffer, Verdura, Seaman Schepps and Raymond Yard sits in a strong collectors' market. Good unsigned American Retro with fine construction does well. Ordinary hollow gold pieces in worn condition sell close to their metal.
Because so much Retro is close to melt value, it is the period where the gold calculator is most directly useful, and where the decision between selling as an object and selling as metal is most finely balanced. Work it through with what is my antique jewelry worth.
Retro is about to become antique
The period begins in 1935, which crosses the hundred year line in 2035. The earliest Retro pieces will be formally antique within a decade, and the whole period by 2050. That will change how they are described commercially, how customs treats them and, historically, what they sell for. See antique versus vintage.
Frequently asked questions
What years are Retro jewelry?
Roughly 1935 to 1950, bridging late Art Deco and the mid century. Some dealers extend it to 1955.
Why is Retro jewelry made of rose gold?
Because platinum was restricted as a strategic material during the Second World War and gold was what remained available. Rose gold, which is gold alloyed with a high proportion of copper, was fashionable and gave designers colour when coloured stones were scarce.
Are the rubies in 1940s jewelry real?
Frequently they are synthetic, and this is period-correct rather than deceptive. Synthetic rubies and sapphires were widely and openly used in the Retro years because natural supply had been cut off. They are chemically identical to natural stones and worth considerably less.
Is Retro jewelry antique?
Not yet. The earliest Retro pieces reach the hundred year antique threshold in 2035. Until then the period is classed as vintage.
How can I tell Retro from 1980s gold jewelry?
Check the fittings, the construction and the gold. Retro pieces use clip or screw earring backs and period clip brooch mechanisms, are built from soldered sheet and tube with visible internal seams, and are usually 14 or 18 carat. 1980s revival pieces are cast, often 9 carat or plated, and frequently have posts for pierced ears.