PARIS LEADS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 132, 1 December 1936, Page 15

PARIS LEADS

JEWELLERY FASHIONS

"Paris teads and the rest follow' is the summing-up of a buyer of a Sydney store on the trade in jewellery and semi-precious jewellery throughout the world. She added that American Resigns are, next to French, the most sought-after. Germany makes good jewellery, and good copies of better jewellery. Italy still specialises in the fine handwrought jewellery of earlier periods, employing very fine filigree work. American designs are original and individual, and are much in request in Europe. Czechoslovakia will copy anything for a fraction of the original cost, although the better type of semi-pre-cious* ornament is now being manufactured. Cartier, for instance, in Paris, may make a new design for a diamond brooch valued at four hundred guineas. It is quickly copied, if it is displayed, and is sent to other countries; for cheaper manufacture in semi-precious stones, and frankly artificial ones, so that copies of Cartier bracelets ' and brooches are obtainable for a few guineas, or in some cases a few shillings. Cartier designs for link bracelets in diamonds and platinum are copied in paste, and broadcast throughout the world. Now his combination of rubies, emeralds, and sapphires with diamonds in block designs is being reproduced for a few guineas, and so beautifully are they made that it is not possible to detect much difference from the genuine article at a distance of a few feet, under artificial light j A DUCHESS AND PEARLS. The Duchess of Kent brought pearls into popular favour again in England, and wears little else in the way of ornament. Her pearls are reproduced in. the cultured type and the frankly imitation. Long strands, single necklets, and earrings all appear in a semiprecious range. The choker may be extended in many of the sets by clipping in the stranded bracelet to form the back part. The two clasps are identical, and the whole makes a beautiful necklet of the longer type. White paste led up to a few years ago in reproductions of the work of famous jewellers, principally because the women buying the originals would not submit to colour. Now that colour has again been introduced into precious jewellery it is finding its reflected way into the humbler ranks. Like a chapter from a detective novel are the stories told by a jewellery buyer of the ruses adopted to obtain copies of good pieces. Perhaps a wealthy woman buys a clasp for £400. Her maid is approached, and for a consideration of 300 francs or so she allows a drawing to be made by a jeweller while her .mistress is out. That copy is sent to one of the countries which specialise in copying jewellery, and the jeweller gets his commission. Shortly afterwards the market is flooded with the semi-precious replicas, and some not precious at all. Blue is this year's shade for sea monsters, according to the crew of a Shetland herring boat, which was recently engaged in a heroic struggle with a huge and mysterious creature which got entangled in then.' nets. It was bluish, and about 20 feet long, tail about 5 feet long/ tapering from 7 inches to 3; body thick as a barrel, head comparatively small, skin very hard.