Good morning my lovely, I hope you had a nice weekend! Mine was just wonderful as I was out in the countryside and it turned out that the monthly Village Antique Fair was on, which I decided to pop by early on Sunday morning. I spent over an hour browsing through everything from old clocks and watches to photographs from the 19th century (when people would only have their photo taken once in their lifetime, so you can imagine what a big day it was and how important it was to wear their very finest clothes and jewellery!), loads of jewellery and other objets d’art.
Vintage Trifari necklace – not in its original box
I soon stopped by one of my favourite jewellery stands, where I was shown this gold coloured vintage Trifari necklace, covered in rhinestones. It had the Trifari hallmark on the clasp and I believe that it is from the 50s or 60s. It is always so lovely to see pieces in perfect condition, with all the design features intact for us to admire.
A closer look at the Trifari necklace
I know that I have mentioned Trifari before, and I thought that the necklace gives us the perfect excuse to look at the history of this famous jewellery company:
Trifari was founded in New York in 1925 by Gustavo Trifari, Leo F Krussman and Carl M Fishel in New York. Gustavo Trifari came from Naples, where he had been trained by his grandfather in his little goldsmith workshop. When he moved to New York in 1902 he initially worked for a company called Weinberg and Sudzen, and after ten years his started his own company together with Leo F Krussman, and simply decided to call it Trifari and Krussman.
In 1925 Carl Fishel joined and this is by many seen as the start of the company, but others only consider the firm to have been complete in 1930, when Alfred Philippe became the head designer. Philippe produced some of the company’s most recognisable pieces, and with a background designing high end jewellery for companies like Cartier and Van Cleef & Arples you can understand what an air of elegance and luxury he would have added to the designs.
Despite the rationing during the war, Trifari flourished and produced some of their finest pieces, which is quite remarkable since so many other companies drew their last breaths during these difficult years. Gustavo Trifari passed away in 1952 and Krussman and Fishel continued without him until 1964 when their sons took over the business, and continued to run it for many years to come.
Decades of Elegance 