Posted 4 years ago
rhineisfine
(17 items)
This is a pair of Jay Flex earrings that I found at a local consignment shop. From what I've been able to learn online, Jay Flex was a Montreal-based company that made rhinestone costume jewellery from the 1930s until the 1960s. The story is that Gustave Sherman worked at Jay Flex before creating his own company, also in Montreal. Every Jay Flex piece is set in sterling silver, and they tended to use clear chatons and baguettes arranged in simple geometric patterns. As a result, they can sometimes look slightly staid, especially next to Sherman's more sophisticated and brilliantly coloured pieces. Nonetheless, the stones are always high-quality, and the settings invariably sterling.
This pair of earrings is unusual thanks to the purple amethyst stones, especially those prominent navettes. They're also just a touch odd-looking. Not only are the circles of clear stones slightly flattened, the screwback findings are attached at different points so that they look positively asymmetrical when worn! They have the look of identical twins who part their hair on opposite sides.
At any rate, I couldn't resist buying them as a charming example of a lesser-known Canadian rhinestone manufacturer.
Gorgeous pair of Jay Flex earrings, the amethyst accents over the clear rhinestones are fabulous! Love that this co only used sterling silver settings, top quality
Thank you for the kind comment, Newfld! I agree, Jay Flex's devotion to sterling settings is very appealing. I've also heard that they used Swarovski rhinestones, but I'm not sure if that's true. Austrian, I think, at the very least.
(By the way, I tried to photograph the stamp on the screwback finding that says "JAY FLEX STERLING" but it's on a curved surface and almost impossible to capture. Bah.)
I bought a piece of Sherman and without looking at the name at the back you would swear that it was JayFlex. When Sherman started his own company his work started out very simply. Your pictures are great and especially nice the second pic has that dreamy feeling. Superb. They made a lot of nice cases for some of their work also. I imagine Sherman started there as one of their salesmen, but that is my conjecture.
So very beautiful!!
@Ms.CrystalShip, thank you for the nice comment. That's exactly what attracted me to this pair of earrings. Glad you like them!
@Phil, that's really interesting about the early Sherman pieces resembling Jay Flex. You could well be right about Gustave Sherman starting out as a salesman there, and perhaps learning his craft that way.
I'll admit that for me, Sherman is the Platonic ideal of what rhinestone jewellery can be, but some Jay Flex pieces are really attractive and occasionally I'm tempted sufficiently to buy one or two. I'll have to look out for a Jay Flex case as well, don't think I've ever seen one. Thank you for the lovely comments!
@jscott0363, thank you very much for coming by and for leaving your sweet comment!
Nfld
vetraio50
Ms.CrystalShip
aura
fortapache
dav2no1
PhilDMorris
Manikin
Watchsearcher
jscott0363
-- thank you for stopping by and for loving my earrings. Much appreciated.
Gorgeous!
@FreshAir, thank you for your comment and for the love!
Beautiful!
I used to have one of their cases, nice one. Sold it, otherwise would have sent it to you for this fab piece.
Still so gorgeous. When Jay-Flex did a piece well they did it so much so, like this piece rhineisfine, cannot fault this in any way whatsoever !~
I had a Jay-Flex larger case which was marked, but otherwis was unremarkable with a plain tan colour !~