Customer Reviews

Collecting Costume Jewelry 202: The Basics of Dating Jewelry

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is fantastic! I am an experienced collector and this book is full of information on learning how to date vintage costume jewelry. I was totally impressed by the large sections on Coro & Trifari since I have many pieces from these designers from the 1930's - 1950's, and it was wonderful to be able to see actual patents, ads, and dating techniques. Along with the many other designers that she covered was just adding icing on the cake. I thought Ms. Carroll out did herself with her first book "Collecting Costume Jewelry 101" but this one continues to show her love, dedication and hard work on providing collectors with beautiful photos and extremely valuable information. I have already purchased many copies as Christmas gifts and hope she will continue to share her wealth of knowledge with us on this subject.

Brief Description of Book
This book is as thick as the September issue of Vogue magazine with almost 500 pages of information. The author guides the reader through the basics of dating a piece of jewelry. She uses a six-step process to sleuth out the approximate date of production. There are loads of photos and advertisements to help with dating. Costume Jewelry 202 may also be a "wish book" to keep you looking out for pieces that you just must have!


Quantity of Illustrations:
There are more than 1300 total illustrations in Collecting Costume Jewelry 202. There are 650 new color photographs, 160 original advertisements in color and black and white, 550 patent illustrations and 4000 patent design numbers.
Comments: A very substantial reference book


Quality of Illustrations:

B/w and color illustrations:
Original vintage advertisements are reproduced in black and white or color depending on the advertisement. The author has reproduced the text of the advertisements so that you can actually read the ad copy that accompanies the pictures. The patent sketches are black and white line drawings.

Color Photos:
The new photos are very good I don't think I saw a fuzzy image in this book!
Close ups of the marks? None, There is an appendix that describes the marks but no photos or drawings of maker's marks
Comments: The photos are good and show the pieces clearly. There is only one photo of a piece therefore there are no details or views of the back construction. The photos are not arty or distracting the focus is on the piece of jewelry. The backgrounds are a consistent white color. There could have been darker backgrounds to make some of the colors "pop".


Quantity of Information
Range of Information offered:
The author's "Six Methods for Dating Costume Jewelry" in the beginning of the book is well written and easy to follow. It will help a reader narrow down the date a piece was produced.
The methods are:
* Maker's mark
* Patent
* Vintage advertisements
* Style or design
* Reference materials books and internet
* And finally dating jewelry by provenance


Is the information thorough?
The majority of the book is devoted to Coro and Trifari 172 pages out of almost 500. So, it would seem as if the Coro and Trifari part are thorough. There are 125 additional makers included. There sections are from a few paragraphs to a few pages. I believe all of the makers in this book are American.



Quality of Information:
Accuracy (Mistakes?) The information seems to be correct, but I am not so much of an expert that I could spot anything more than the most glaring mistake. I do not feel qualified to give an opinion on this section.


Values Listed (Prices) Yes
Are they helpful or realistic?
The prices are based on what one might hope to get in an e-bay auction.
Comments: Based on the prices sometimes I want to be buying and other times I want to be on the selling end of the transaction.


User Friendly:
Is the book easy to read and follow? yes
Is there a table of contents and index? yes
Is information easy to find? yes
Comments: Nothing like a good index to make this reader/reviewer happy. It costs the publisher money to index the materials but in a 500-page book this feature is essential.


Is this book a must have? Yes

Overall comments
Collecting Costume Jewelry 202 is a useful and interesting book. I have had it a week and I have opened it up and used it every day for something. $25.00 well spent.


This review appears in the on-line collecting site Jewelry ring a Yahoo Group!

I have been collecting Costume Jewelry for a very long time. I only wish I had a "primer" like this when I started out! I bought the first book "C.C.J.:101" for my daugther last year and was very impressed. This one WOWED me. Even if you have been collecting as long as I have you will find a wealth of information. Some will say it has a big focus on Coro, but, there's alot out there and first timers will find that more often then Haskell. Bravo! This a keeper.

I own a copy of this book, and I cannot put it down. As I am reading I keep coming across jewelry that is similar to something I currently own and collect - and now thanks to this book, I know the date the jewelry was made. This book contains not only pages of beautiful photographs, but also patent tables and authentic jewelry advertisements to help a collector date jewelry - on top of that each picture caption includes detailed info on the piece including the manufacturer, the date of the piece, if it is marked by style, and other useful info. Collecting Costume Jewelry 202 is an invaluable reference for both the beginner and the novice collector.

Collecting Costume Jewelry 202 is a marvelous reference book and a joy to read. The pictures are particularly beautiful and the wealth of information is stunning. As a collector of vintage jewelry I appreaciate the illustration of the trends in styles that the wonderfully talented costume jewelry designers displayed in their pieces. Kudos to Ms. Carroll for teaching us with this fine book.

In "Collecting Costume Jewelry 101", Julia Carroll provided a guide to the main makers of (American) designer costume jewellery, which would allow a beginner to get some idea of what is on offer before going out into the market. In the sequel to this book, "Costume Jewelry 202", Carroll starts by assuming that her readers have already started their costume jewellery collections and then proceeds to give advice on how to date this jewellery.

According to Carroll, there are six main methods of dating costume jewellery: using the maker's mark; using patent information; by reviewing vintage advertisements; by the style or design of the piece; by using books and the internet; and by provenance. Carroll then provides as much of this information as possible to her readers to allow them to date their own jewellery using these methods. For each of the major designers whom Carroll has selected (and there are a lot of them), she provides tables of patent numbers and descriptions, pictures of vintage advertisements, tables of maker's marks and information on style. Much of this information I have not seen in any other book. Extra space is devoted to Coro, Vendome and Trifari jewellery. Readers of "Costume Jewelry 101" will recall that in this book Carroll recommended that beginners start by collecting jewellery by Coro, Kramer, Trifari and Weiss, so this is somewhat consistent with that. Although, I feel that she should have also devoted extra space to Kramer and Weiss jewellery to be fully consistent.

As with the previous book, this book is filled with numerous colour photographs of the jewellery, with 2007 values given for each piece. Please note that this book focuses on dating costume jewellery produced between 1935 and 1980, so if you are interested in dating jewellery that is either earlier or later that this, this book may prove inadequate.

I know there are several good jewelry expert authors out there, but Julia C Carroll ought to be crowed queen of them all! Jewelry 202 reveals the astounding amount of research a real pro does when penning a great teaching guide. Within days of reading this jewel, I was able to identify and purchase several high quality, rare and unsigned pieces at great prices, confirming their origin and timeframe of design. Packed with info and yummy pictures, it is a guide for those who really want to LEARN. Don't miss her "101" also, and pray she writes a "303". Treat yourself to this book!

You need this book for researching and dating costume jewelry from many different makers. There is a wealth of information to help buyers and sellers. Also included are extremely helpful copies of advertisements from years back. You also need the "101" book written by the same author.

This gigantic book is filled with photos, patent numbers, vintage ads and dating methods making it very impressive at first thumb-though. However, it is true that it focuses primarily on Trifari and Coro, (especially the pre-1955 pieces) so if you do not collect pieces from those two manufacturers, this book might not be the best choice. I would have liked to have seen more info on other makers, not just a paragraph. The back appendix features the maker's different marks and the year that they were first used on the jewelry. However, most of these dates are "unknown". This causes me to wonder if the author would have been wiser to just omit this appendix altogether.
Again, I must say that the photos and vintage ads and clearly written methods on how to date jewelry are excellent, and probably second to none. There just needs to be more information on more companies rather than only a few.

For many years my customers have asked how to date a piece of costume jewelry, they have bought from me. Now I have the answers at my finger tips. What a great book! Very informative and well written. A beautiful book in all.