Talking Trifari Jewelry | Learning the Style and Markings, Researching Comps

hi everyone I'm Lynn from Vines of yesterday thanks for stopping in today we're talking trafari jewelry and we're going to talk a little bit about the history of the company and I'm going to show you some of their creations and many of their pieces and also their markings so you know what to look for when you're out and about then we're I'm going to show you some of my pieces that I have and some of the special features that are on them and also we'll go to eBay solds and see what has trafari been selling for lately so stay tuned till the end so let's get started So today we're talking trafari jewelry this is a company I fell in love with over the past year and I'm finally getting to do a video of it and teach you a little bit about what I've learned over the past year about this company and why the pieces are so wonderful so this company has been in business for almost 100 years and they started over a hundred years ago in 1910 Gustavo trefari came over to the U.S after learning the Goldsmith trade in his country of Italy I believe he learned it from his father for two years when he got to the United States He collaborated with his uncle ludovico in New York in creating jewelry and the company was called trafarian trafari when his uncle left the business the name was just chopped down to one trafari and her and then around 1925 Leo Cushman and Carl Fishel came into the picture and the company was then called ktf and obviously using their three names at that time that's the jewelry Mark that they used and you'll see it here on the left side on a piece of jewelry in 1930 they hired a fabulous jewelry designer who used to work at Cartier and Van Cleef and created beautiful jewelry with Sapphires and diamonds and gold and silver but when he came to trafari he had to start producing I don't want to say a lower end quality jewelry but he wasn't able to use diamonds and sapphires and rubies anymore so he had to come up with a way to put more jewelry out to the public where people could afford so he had to use synthetic stones and cheaper metals and that type of thing so was he able to do it and how was he able to do it he used less expensive materials to form costume jewelry which is jewelry made with imitation gems since these pieces had imitation gems he could make larger pieces like big flower brooches and he could use more stones and unique stones particular style in the 1930s was called fruit salad and most of these are signed ktf as you can see on the screen the uniqueness of the beads that they used and these are mostly pastel beads that are called fruit salad Jafari is known for signing all their pieces as the model goes if it isn't signed it isn't trafari but I believe in the beginning they used hang tags so there are pieces from the beginning that are not signed but they're few and far between it's hard to even find any pieces that have ktf on them so they produced quality pieces and everyone seen their Unique Designs in the 1940s with the war going on they were having to use more expensive metals because the cheaper metals they needed for war after the war was over people wanted jewelry they could afford so in 1947 trefari created and patented its own alloy metal that is resistant to tarnish called trifarium this is why you see many of the pieces in really good condition today because it is tarnish resistant you'll also see this beautiful Eagle brooch that I believe Alfred designed than in the 1940s to 50s lucite became popular which imitates rock crystal but really is a type of acrylic plastic and this was used in the middle of animals or bugs mostly brooches the original maker of Jelly Bellies is what they call this which contain the center clear bead was questionable we don't really know who created it or I should say I don't know who created it because I haven't found proof of any company specifically that has been the first maker of Jelly Bellies I could be wrong please help me in the comments below if you know and you have evidence of it somewhere but I've seen it both ways I've heard it both ways but I just haven't found any for sure all I know is that in 1943 trefari patented this rabbit on the left side the design for this rabbit and on the right Coral patented one is very similar in design in 1945 the earliest I could find for a lucite piece like this was 1943 so I am still not sure I've heard Coral is the original maker of Jelly Bellies and trafari has a patent here that's earlier than corals so I'm still not positive on who created these first either way lucite was popular and everybody was loving them and it's not really considered a Jelly Belly if it's colored the Jelly Belly only applies to the clear lucite pieces and it's usually in the center of the animal or insect so one of fari's best-selling items is the crown brooch that it was presented in 1941 and marked trafari Sterling and Des patent pending design patent pending the crown brooch was proposed again in 1951 1955 1960 and the late 60s so you could have a broach that could be anywhere from 1941 to the late 60s each time that they made it and they reintroduced it they had modified it and gradually pearls were added so if you have a have one with pearls in it is probably the later ones trafari became the leader in costume jewelry due to Alfred Felipe he and his team created Exquisite pieces right up into the 1960s but ninety percent of his pieces were traditional designs and sold to big box stores all across the USA they were in business until 1975 when it was bought and sold several times which by 2000 the Monet group had moved production of I believe Puerto Rico Monet is another company that was bought out from the same companies and moved to Puerto Rico so I'm going to show you some particular beads and stones that Jafari used and maybe this will help you recognize them faster when you're out looking for pieces this first one is called invisible settings and as you look at these pictures you'll see that the the stones go all the way to the edge of the piece and you don't hardly see any of the gold tone all you see is rhinestones it's completely filled they're just gorgeous beautiful pieces and they sell for high prices we'll take a look at them soon these are called ragdolls these are definitely a signature of trafari and I believe Alfred Felipe is the designer of these they trafari did have multiple designers on staff but I think Alfred was their highest end one and he was in charge of the department these shoe buttons as you can see are little round beads probably glass and in all different pastel colors and different colors with a rhinestone in the middle of them they represent what he did at Cartier or Van Cleef with rubies and sapphires and they had a little diamond in the middle so this is representative of what he used to do with high-end jewelry so his costume jewelry is just as gorgeous it's just not the quality of the high-end gems all right I wanted to go through some of my trifari brooches with you let's start with this one down here this is an adorable little wheat brooch and it has a heart that dangles on it with a house on it and you can see on the back it was made for Betty Crocker Homemaker of tomorrow 1956. and it's got a crown trafari with a copyright symbol so that means it's from 1955 to 1969. I guess they were given as Awards to certain ladies for some reason not sure that was back in the 50s and then we have this cute little heart brooch that has rhinestones all over it it looks like this one on the end is has been replaced but other than that it's really an old trafari let's show let's look closer so on the back side as you can see the pin is kind of flattened on this one end and then it has trafari with no copyright symbol with no crown on it or no patent pending that means it's an old trafari like in the very beginning when they had Jewels By trafari and most of the stuff they had was hang tags I believe this is one of those early early trafaris but that one I have listed on eBay at the moment for 55 dollars or around 55. then this one is my all-time favorite trifari brooch I just love it you can see it's kind of got Dome shape glass beads in it and they are prong set and they were actually molded and then set into these little rings and then soldered together look at the back look how open the back is it lets so much light through and these Stones just glisten it's got a real long pin clasp on it and at the end you can see the pin extends past the end so that means it's older and the the marking on it says trafari with the copyright symbol it's actually a crown trafari with a copyright symbol also has a pendant hook so you can hang it as an on a necklace so this was made between 1955 and 69. now don't mix this up with grippoy which is poured glass this is molded glass poured glass is where they actually make these wire frames for each little section and then they pour hot molded glass and hot molten glass into each little wireframe and then it hardens inside so it's fitted perfectly to the frame if you look on the back of them a lot of times the backs are rough because they polish out the tops and they don't polish out the backs as well so you would see them on Chanel and Dior and I believe trafari did some of that but they were more known to do their molded glass because it takes so much time to do the group poi they said you could they could put a hundred hours into a piece so this was costume jewelry if you remember so we have to use cheaper materials and it's going to have to take less time to make because you're selling it for a lot less but just imagine how much time they put into this one piece right now I have this listed on eBay for 375 but I don't have any takers so um it'll probably move down some and I'm willing to accept offers but we'll see how it goes I can keep it too over here we have some 1950s brooches and if you'll notice they're three of these are all white enamel and gold tone so that was something that trafari had done back in the 50s used a lot of different white enamel here's what the back side looks like and it's marked crown trafari with the copyright symbol so actually 1955 to 69 this cruise ship they called a junk boat not a cruise ship a junk boat there's the crown trafari symbol this one is listed at about fifty dollars these other ones are more in the 20s this butterfly is really cute it's white on the back as well this one's almost solid white except for the PIN so pretty nice pieces the boat is more flat the wreath looking one is domed the butterfly has a little bit of Dome to it then this last piece I have a video out with this piece in it this is something I wanted to show you again though because if you didn't see the other video this one has beads in it that trafari made these look like baby teeth and they call them the baby tooth brooch and they make these in wreaths and other styles but this grape one is definitely more rare and it's um more sought after I do have it up on auction at the moment and it has one bid for 750 dollars right now so when you're out and about please take a look at these brooches if you ever see these baby teeth pearls on here they're obviously faux pearls but just a different type of pearl just to make trafari stand out that's what Gustavo and Alfred Felipe certainly wanted was to stand out among all the other costume Jewelers so that type of stone is something different and these molded glass pieces are something to keep an eye out for all right that's it that's all the pieces I wanted to show you today I do have many other pieces that are just your traditional gold brooches and necklaces and that type of thing so okay so let's take a look at the markings so on the top we have the first marking which was ktf for the three owners back in the 20s and it was popular between 1920s to the 1930s when it changed over to the full name of trafari and it was patent pending at the time so they had trafari Pat penned on most of their pieces from the 1930s to the 1955 and at the same time frame they introduced the crown trafari where they put the crown over top the T all the same company just they added the the crown and it's still the company still called trafari but when we refer to the time frames that jewelry was made we usually say the crown trafari time frame so the first or the third one down is the first crown trafari logo so 1937 to 1955 you'll see this one with no copyright symbol until 1955 when copyright became a thing then you'll see the copyright symbol after the crown trafari so 1955 to 1969 that one was popular until the late 70s when they were bought out and the uh oval-shaped trafari with the copyright symbol was popular and that was from the 1970s to the 1980s and then it switched over to trafari TM which is trademark and that's the last we see of trafari until 1999 and the company was sold out we're going to jump over to the eBay solds and see what the values of some of this trifari jewelry is going for let's hop over to eBay okay here we are on the eBay site and up on this Top Line I plugged in trafari let's just take a quick look and see what the average listings look like this first one obviously is like the one I just showed you with the baby teeth in it and this one's listed for 539 dollars it's from 1959 they have it and they call it the Sereno baby tooth wreath and here's a one on the right this pave look at these um the setting on this is just um filled to the tee so you cannot even hardly see the setting this one's listed at 325 dollars and these are just some of the most common or most recent listings this one is really pretty a large pin with the blue glass rhinestone from the 50s they got it at 3.99 I think that's a little steep but I could be wrong this one was done by Alfred Felipe isn't that just gorgeous butterfly of course you don't see this on too many um traditional butterflies I'm going to show you what I have down here on the left it says sold items let's click on that and it will give us what sold recently look at this gorgeous this is uh looks like poured glass let's look at this closer might be molded glass so these pieces are just faceted rhinestones or not poured that is really pretty 305 dollars that sold for and they call it just rare gorgeous faceted open back Blue Glass on gold Kilt metal pretty piece see what else this looks like an Alfred Felipe yes it is he's made several different bow brooches that are pretty valuable 306 dollars it sold for was seven bibs this nautical one is really pretty 183 dollars some of these uh brushed gold ones sell for quite a bit that one went for 55. okay close your eyes a minute I'm gonna scroll real fast I'm going to go up here where it says ended recently and I'm going to do highest first and up here I'm going to put in minus lot because we don't want to see the Lots we want to see the individual pieces of course these still come up look at this piece this is one of Jules of India they had different series they came out with jewels of India was one of them that's really a popular one 49 bids on it for 4 438 dollars and this one over here has just got Moonstone beads and I sold for 3250 that's a PR part of Parlier set Demi Parlier is two Parlier is three pieces or more this piece right here is really not a good picture of this but it is a gorgeous invisible setting piece do you think I'm getting better pictures on here this sold for 2 800 dollars as you can see the stones go right up to the edge of the setting it doesn't even look like there's hardly a setting on it and the rhinestones all the way down the stem or baguettes all the way down the stem just a gorgeous piece 2850 it sold for here's another invisible setting one this one is a fruit salad see the beads they kind of leaf a leaf looking design to them kind of a leaf and flowers two thousand five hundred dollars cool nautical anchor two thousand four hundred invisible waffle they call this one probably because of this the waffle um Stone was pressed like a waffle oh yeah let them that's the one thing about trafari is they have different types of stones different either their glass or synthetic but they're still different that's a fur clip here's the back the the ones that have the spikes are for for the ones that are Clips are for scarves they call this Ruby Emerald Sapphire it could possibly be real secondary stone is sapphire I'm sure trifari did do some specialty pieces where they did use actual gemstones in them but I'm sure they're few and far between let's go back up sorry flip back up here and look for the crown brooches that we talked about is it not pulling up any Crown brooches because nobody has sold any let's see here's that one that I had a picture of that's just gorgeous through almost three thousand dollars this is a fruit salad one see they call this a Jelly Belly but it's definitely not the Jelly Belly that's fruit salad here's some ragdolls or pop they call them pom-poms Pom-Pom and TomTom this has got to be from the 1940s this eagle here's another fruit salad ah here's a crown brooch 1940s Sterling Alfred Felipe Royal Crown brooch and earring set oh they have earrings that go with it too lovely twelve hundred dollars they're asking for it is actually a pretty good price here's some ragdolls they call them Pom-Pom and TomTom let's take a little bit closer eleven hundred dollars would you pick them up knowing that they were going to be worth over a thousand dollars see the printing glass how it's glowing and impressed they did a lot of pressed type glass I need to go back to solds apparently there's not been any Crown brooches that have sold recently this is similar to the crown brooch they call it the crown scepter here's another jewels of India and another jewels of India here's another fruit salad hopefully this has given you an idea this is the invisible setting another Crown scepter another fruit salad another invisible setting here's some crowns 995 dollars it sold for not sure what the double thing is if that's two I doubt it all right let's go back up and look at lucite lucite I'm just going to put lucide in for now and see what pulls up minus lot oh here we go lovely swan and I guess it officially can be called a Jelly Belly because it is clear clear Center belly 1150 or 1125 dollars it sold for and even came in the Box nice I'm trying to figure out what the other two round ones are they call it a brooch set they're brooch pieces here's the marking it's got a crown over the trevari and it says does Pat pend so design patent pending Sterling nice piece they call that the Jelly Belly officially it can be here's a horse with a lucite Jelly Belly in the center run about nine hundred dollars this one's about nine hundred dollars here's a butterfly that's nine hundred dollars and this is another picture of um they call it Moon shell and it's by Alfred Felipe and it's popular people love it and I've seen it sold many times but I've never found one so if you ever run across this simple design even though it's pretty elaborate look at this pig that's another Alfred Felipe he doesn't do anything traditional he does a lot of elaborate designs and this little red lucite almost like a heart they're calling it a Jelly Belly but officially it's not this is pretty I had a necklace that had these blue stones in it and I sold it way too cheap and it's all within minutes four hundred dollars here is some of the shoe button stones let's go out and plug in shoe button look at this lovely bracelet in this pretty pink molded one oh look at this about 200 it sold for this is a fur clip here's the back they don't take a picture of the mark see if I can get that get a close-up it's not letting me get the zoom see how it indents in the top and then they put a rhinestone in the top pretty cool piece there's not too many out there but they sell for over a hundred dollars so make sure you keep an eye out for them little shoe button pins let's look at this one real quick oh isn't that pretty the blue stones contrasting gosh that's so pretty I love the little shoe buttons they're adorable I am going to do brushed gold because I've been having lock with finding brushed gold pieces lately as you can see it's kind of a matte color gold this one doesn't show it as well it's not your high gloss it's like brushed down but look what the prices are going for on these well that's an Alfred Felipe here's one that's not but still 200 around 200 dollars this one's adorable with these little balls in it here look at the leaves on here this is definitely brushed gold 219 dollars let's see if mine's in here I have had some similar to these that's a pretty bracelet brush gold over a hundred dollars now I do I am looking at these from here's the one piece I had that's like this and I had earrings that matched it but they weren't these it's like this piece mine sold for 90 dollars and I had like 10 bits on it right away for 80 in the 80s and I didn't accept any of them then finally the person bought it for 90 which it looks like I could have probably sold it for more this gives you an idea of what some of these brush gold pieces are selling for I know Gold's supposed to be in this year and it's supposed to be popular so definitely keep your eye out for them that's a pretty piece here's my set sold for 90. apparently I could have got more for that this one sold for 95 which is pretty similar all right I'm going to eliminate brush gold and just go to recent lowest first because some pieces will sell for a little or nothing and sometimes people don't know what they have sometimes they just want to get rid of some of their stock sometimes they put it up for auction and they don't start the bidding at a high enough price as you can see we're talking under ten dollars for a lot of these with shipping which is pretty reasonable pretty reasonable trafari is probably one of the better this looks like one that I have it's one of the better Brands to look for your I mean that you're gonna find more common out and about so I just thought I would share those with you and I hope this has helped you some and if you enjoyed this video please hit the like button and don't forget to subscribe and look for our next video out thanks for joining me see you on the next one [Music] yourself [Music]

Channel: Finds of Yesterday

Views: 11,794

Keywords: ebay, reseller, Thrifter, thrifting, mercari, ebay seller, sell on ebay, vintage, #sell on mercari, jewelry, jewelry haul, thrifting jewelry, Trifari, Trifari jewelry, Selling Trifari jewelry, Talking Trifari Jewelry, Learning about Trifari, Researching sold comps on ebay, Learning about jewelry

Id: MTdzLSRU9qw

Length: 36min 7sec (2167 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 12 2023