Juliana Jewelry is primarily rhinestone costume jewelry. It was first available in 1947, and has been the ultimate in glitzy costume jewelry for many years. It was originally identified with a hang-tag or a card with the Juliana logo, but most of those have been lost over the years. Aside from Minnie Pearl, there are not many who leave hang-tags on items they wear.
Since most of the Juliana Jewelry is not marked, jewelry collectors have had to rely on comparison, composition and style to identify Juliana Jewelry.
Identify Juliana Jewelry by Style
Know the style. Juliana Jewelry is the most elaborate rhinestone vintage costume jewelry we see. It is often made up of different sizes and shapes of stones, prong-set, and artsy style. Most Juliana Jewelry is large, but smaller pieces are being identified, so size is not a true identifier.
Learn the Characteristics of Juliana Jewelry
Recognize the characteristics. Juliana Jewelry bracelets are the easiest to identify. Bracelets made by DeLizza and Elster (Juliana Jewelry creators) are usually five-link construction. Often, the clasp has rhinestones, too. Many of these costume jewelry link bracelets have a safety chain. The links connecting the five sections of a Juliana bracelet are unique. They are rectangular with either arrows, four straight line sections or three beaded straight lines.
Rhinestones in Juliana jewelry are often dimensional and layered, and different sizes and shapes. This jewelry is elaborate in the number of stones in each piece. The stones are shiny and look perfect.
Look for Bracelets, Necklaces, Brooches and Earrings
Juliana Jewelry came in clamper bracelets and flat rhinestone styles, too. Clamper bracelets often have filigree on the edge, and flat rhinestone bracelets have a tongue and box fastener with a safety chain.
Necklaces were often five-link construction, too, and many of the elements are carefully soldered to the base chain. Dimensional layered stones are typical. Necklaces have a shepherd's hook fastener that is plain, and hooks onto the rhinestone chain on the other side.
Brooches or pins may have a circular ring support on the backside, a joint and catch pin assembly and maybe a loop for wearing as a pendant.
Earrings often have a scalloped edge clip with three, two, or one punched holes. The order is reversed here because there seem to be more three hole clips than two or one-hole clips.
Check the Quality to Find Juliana Jewelry
Juliana Jewelry was quality costume jewelry, with great attention to details such as soldering and the quality of rhinestones. They made the best quality, most elaborate costume jewelry we saw in the 1960s. Krementz was also good jewelry at that time, but they made mostly gold filled jewelry with semi-precious stones, and not lots of large glitzy pieces. Krementz jewelry is marked, and that eliminates any confusion.
Juliana Jewelry is fun vintage costume jewelry with fantastic style and glitz. The stones are not glued into place, but have metal prongs around each stone. This was time-consuming work, and would probably make this jewelry unreasonable to manufacture today. See more information about Juliana Jewelry online at Morning Glory Antiques or read The Art of Juliana Jewelry by Katerina Musetti [Schiffer Books, 2008].
Linda Richard - Writer, proofreader, editor, antiques appraiser specializing in pottery and glass. Author of Retirement Living Guide series.
