history
Miriam Haskell was born in Indiana on July 1, 1899. She dropped out of college and began working to make a living.
In 1924, the company opened a store selling high-end jewelry such as Coco CHANEL at the McAlphin Hotel (103 Sixteenth St., NY) in New York, and in 1926, it officially founded its company by hiring Frank Hess, a window display designer at Macy's department store, as designer.
Although Haskell rarely designed anything himself, he had precision in his design selections and a keen eye for identifying talented designers.
According to someone who worked for Haskell at the time, Miriam designed a very small number of products in the early days.
In the 1930s, Haskell began hiring highly skilled artists from Europe to produce more exquisite jewelry.
We have a shop in New York's Sake Fifth Avenue store and in London's Harvey Nicholas.
Designs from this period include lariats, beaded necklaces with large central motifs (often nature motifs), fur clips, and designs with fringe.
Its high quality and design have made it very popular.
Actress Joan Crawford was a fan of Miriam jewelry and was frequently photographed wearing her pieces from the 1930s through to the 1960s.
Haskell released three main seasonal collections a year: for spring, fall and the holidays.
However, Miriam's signature piece of fake pearl jewelry is called BASICS and is available in dozens of designs throughout the year.
Haskell, which previously used domestically produced pearls, began purchasing most of its pearls, primarily baroque-style pearls, from Japan after World War II.
Japanese pearls are made in a unique way called the Oriental Blend, which involves coating the pearls seven times with cellulose, fish scales and resin before being carefully polished.
They are mainly made by a Japanese manufacturer called NIKI PEARL.
When designer Frank Hess visited Japan in 1957 or 1958, he was captivated by Niki's baroque pearls and signed an exclusive contract with them.
The baroque pearls used in subsequent pieces after 1958 are mostly Niki pearls.
These pearls were supplied to Niki for 20 years until they closed their business. Of course, there are baroque pearl pieces from earlier years, but they were pearl processed in the United States or Czech pearls (there is a little more individual variation in shape compared to Niki).
These pearls, which were purchased in large quantities from Niki at the time, were still in stock at Haskell Company as of 2004. After Niki closed down, Haskell Company purchased pearls from several other companies.
The Nakagowa Company in Japan makes pearls that are very similar to Niki, but the color is whiter and more pronounced than Niki.
The 1940s saw a change in the beads and materials used in jewelry.
Due to the war, it became difficult to procure materials from Europe, and due to restrictions on metals, natural materials (wood, feathers) and plastics were used.
After the war, they resumed purchasing from Europe, and also purchased materials and parts from Rhode Island in the United States. Around this time, rhinestones and other materials also began to be used.
Due to health reasons, Miriam retired from running the company in 1951 and was succeeded by her brother Joseph, who continued as a designer for Miriam's company until 1960.
Although the business owner and main designer changed several times after this, Miriam Jewelry's methods were firmly passed down and continued to influence the fashion industry for a long time.
The company continued after Miriam's death in 1981 and continues to produce contemporary jewelry while maintaining its same style.
Stamps and dates
Until the 1940s, paper tags were used and the jewelry itself was not engraved with anything but "Unsigned Miriam Haskell," making this jewelry difficult to identify.
In 1948, the horseshoe-shaped tag was introduced. (See image below)
This had the drawback that it was difficult to solder and could not be worn on necklaces or bracelets that did not have filigree backs.
In 1951, the brand changed to a tag-style oval stamp that could also be used as a charm and engraved on any jewelry piece.
The early tags had the MIRIAM HASKELL stamp visible from the back, but after 1979 they changed to a type with a completely flat back. (See image below)
I have some floral motifs that I made out of ceramic in the 70's, which I hand-sign.
The commonly seen sliding clasp was patented in 1969 and began to be used in 1975. (See image below)
When threading beads together to make necklaces and other pieces, a technique called backstringing was used at the end, which did not use end clasps, but from the mid-1970s, end clasps began to be used due to the time and cost involved.
Jewelry characteristics and how to spot fakes
Miriam's jewelry is carefully made using only wire fastenings and soldering without the use of adhesives, which is the easiest way to spot a fake.
However, over the years the wire decorating the beaded motifs on the clasps has corroded, and many owners have reinforced them with glue.
The hook-shaped necklace clasp is one way to tell if it's genuine or not.
When Haskell jewelry is wired together, the filigree holes are connected together. It is designed to be as invisible as possible, so there are no rough connections skipping several holes. The clasps used by Miriam Jewelry are always 2.5mm x 13.6mm in size and square off. They are connected to the chain with a jump ring and are always attached to the right side of the necklace. (Top right of image)
Haskell jewelry contains many three-dimensional motifs made from multiple layers of filigree, but there are also fake pieces with engraved markings.
One thing that is immediately noticeable is that the gold colours of each layer of filigree are not uniform but rather vary.
Miriam's filigree and stamp pink parts are processed in the United States using a method developed by James Brady called Russian Gold Plate (RGP). Six to seven pre-plating steps are performed, and the final step is dipped into a plating solution made by mixing 24K gold with a secret material.
Since this was all done by hand, there may be slight variations in the gold tone depending on the lot.
The difficult part is that there are cases where there is jewelry with a stamped filigree back that is exactly the same as an unsigned piece, such as an early Haskell fur clip, which has no engraving.
In these cases, both are often genuine, as Haskell "restores its own jewelry."
When earrings and other items are repaired, in some cases only the clip part is replaced with a new one in order to preserve the engraving.
Some of the earrings are stamped with only the word patpend, not Haskell. They are hoop-shaped and are made specifically for Haskell designs.
As you can see, it is difficult to distinguish genuine Haskell jewelry, but as a general guideline
1. From the 1950s onwards, they were stamped.
2. Each and every part and bead in Haskell jewelry is carefully selected by the designer. Are there any parts that look out of place, don't match the color, or are of low quality?
3. (Basically) no glue is used and the wirework is delicate (most of the rough wire work is fake).
However, this does not include pieces that have been restored in recent years. Also, there are many pieces where the owners have reinforced the wire with glue due to corrosion, so it is difficult to generalize. However, some pre-World War II pieces, such as Trifari's KTF-stamped jewelry, have rhinestones attached with glue to a base that was originally designed for setting rhinestones, so it is important to be careful.