So how far back does costume jewelry date?

Costume jewelry basically came out in the fashion line in the 1930s to be worn as sort of a cheap, disposable accessory that was intended to be worn with a certain outfit... and definitely not supposed to be handed down through generations. It was supposed to be fashionable for a short period of time, eventually get outdated , and then be repurchased to fit with a new outfit or new fashion style. Cheap jewelry also existed before that time, such as paste or glass jewelry which goes back as far as the 1700s. so what happened was the upper class had their fine jewelry duplicated for a variety of reasons, using paste or glass stones. and then by the mid 1800s, as the middle class started to grow, there were different levels of jewelry being produced using fine, semi-precious and base materials. fine jewelry that was made from diamonds, fine gems such as emeralds and saphires, and even gold was being produced. jewelry that was produced from rolled gold, a thin layer of gold attached to a base metal, started being sold to the middle class. it was often set with semi-precious gems such as amethyst, coral or pearls, and was much cheaper. jewelry that the common people could afford, consisting of glass stones and base metals made to look like gold was also around. All three types were intended to be passed down to future generations. if you aren't sure what time period a piece of jewelry is from, be sure that there are often clues that can help you tell what time period a piece of jewelry is from - which has to do with its style, material, the type of piece. jewelry reflects styles, colors and stones, even designs of an era. from the years 1910 to 1930 silver was very popular for metal, so jewelry was found in the form of white gold, silver, platinum, or a base metal colored so that it would give off an impression like silver. by the second world war, gold was gaining popularity since it was important to the war effort. The gold that was available was made into very thin sheets and bonded to silver before being manufactured into different kinds of jewelry. around the 1930s the popularity of rhinestone was growing in different parts of europe. it was not available to americans until the 1940s and so consequently, a lot of the pieces from those years feature metal and a single stone or a small cluster of tinyrhinestones. nowadays there is still plenty of fine jewelry, semi precious jewelry, and of course costume jewelry being sold in the markets. costume jewelry can add the finishing touch and show your fashion sense. costume jewelry styles from the past are now becoming very fashionable, and many are being reproduced. even among costume jewelry there is a difference in quality. many of the new pieces do not have the look in the stones or the weight of the older pieces. retro looking costume jewelry is oftentimes collected. costume jewelry simply is not JUST collected.. but actually it is fashionable and trendy.

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well, from what i read, costume jewelry has been part of our culture for almost 300 years - even during the 1700s cheap jewelry made with glass began being produced. and after almost a century around the 1800s, costume jewelry which was made of semi precious material started getting sold and/or traded. the use of semi precious material made the jewelry available in the hands of the every day people. however, the real golden era for the costume jewelry really started booming around the middle of the 20th century. the people who were now middle class wanted their own beautiful but inexpensive jewelry... so it came during the machine age and the industrial revolution - when the costume jewelry came into being. the production of carefully produced replicas of beautiful and admired heirloom pieces was now made possible. the socio economic structure was changing in America and thus did measures of real wealth. many of the women across socio-economic levels... even the working-class, could own a small piece of costume jewelry. the average woman could buy and wear a great more of mass-produced jewelry that was both affordable and stylish. a lot of people feel that the machine has spoiled the beauty of the hand-made costume jewelry; the truth is that the machine has made fashion jewelry more affordable and has enabled people to produce enough of this jewelry to fuel the interest of millions of ladies from all around the world. costume jewelry was made even more fashionable by a number of fashion designers in the mid 20th century. some of the most well known names in costume jewelry manufacturing include both high and low priced brands.

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