FOB SPINNER NECKLACE

Rare 1950s Vendome costume gold plated spinner fob black pendant necklace.

60cmL, some wear to the enamel on the white side of the spinner otherwise in good vintage condition. Stunning and high quality gold plating. 

Emanuel Cohn, a New York business man founded the Coro empire in around 1902 and called it E Cohn & Company. In 1904 Carl Rosenberger became a partner and the firm was renamed Cohn and Rosenberger. The new company produced findings for several items including sautoirs and collar pins. In 1911 the original owner, Emanuel Cohn died, and his family sold their share to his partner Carl. Carl Rosenberger was responsible for the growth of the company, and by combining his and Cohn’s name the new name of ‘Coro’ was born.

Steady growth continued under his guidance. A factory was opened in New York and the line of items produced expanded. The name Coro was officially used for the first time in 1943. The company went on to become the largest costume jewellery manufacturer in the world.

VÊNDOME by CORO

This brand was created by Coro in 1944 and ran up until 1979, and was used for higher end beaded sets mainly, and higher end gold-plated cabochon and diamanté sets later on. With their beaded jewellery, they used multi-facetted glass, Lucite, silvertone & goldtone spacer beads, and sometimes sparkly diamanté for accents. Their designs usually came in matching sets, as was usual for the period up until the 70s – necklaces, bracelets and matching cluster or chandelier earrings.

The Vêndome brand is very highly sought after today, with the best pieces fetching pretty high prices online, mainly because it absolutely epitomises what we think of as the beaded jewellery of the 50s and 60s and the high end Modernist gold-plated brooches of the 70s. Interestingly, the department stores that were permitted to stock the Vendome pieces were not allowed to stock the other cheaper Coro brands as well, and vice versa, thus creating an aura of desirability around the name, what we call in the retail trade a reassuringly expensive brand.