When I was a child ...... My Mom had the normal big box of costume jewelry that resided on her dresser, but in one of her dresser drawers, there were 2 velvet covered, hinged boxes that were separate. They had some very nice sparklies in them and once in a while as she was getting ready to go out or something, I would ask her if I could take them out and she would let me. I would sit on her bed, spread them all out and try them on, one at a time, then look in the mirror to see how beautiful they looked on me. They were so special..... like the Queen owns..... or that is what it felt like to me. She had kept them over the years and probably had them since she was around 20'ish..... she is 86 now and I don't know the exact year she got them.
Although I have never had my eye set on her stuff as I don't want her to ever die and I have all I need...... it did cross my mind a time or two that if she DID go before me and if my sisters and I were ever choosing between what she had, that I would gladly give up the valuable diamond pieces and the gold, if they would consider letting me take these. Now.... I figured there would be no resistance in that since these don't have any big monetary value..... just sentimental princess value......and probably only to me.
This set was made by Kramer of New York, which if I understand correctly, created a vast amount of jewelry, mostly costume jewelry, but much, MUCH nicer than costume jewelry is today.
About 5 or 6 or 7 years ago, when gold and silver prices went up very high, my mom decided to sell some of Dad's silver and gold coins he collected. (He's been gone since 1997, so he didn't care) ha ha....but.... One place that was offering the highest prices locally was an antique store and while there selling silver and gold she found they buy antique jewelry too. Mom thought about it when she got home and decided she never wore these and decided to sell them to the store.
OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She took the jewels and sold them one Saturday and that night she and Tommy (my step Dad) came to visit me at my apartment and in her story telling of what she had been doing that day, she told me what she had done. She had NO idea I felt that way about those jewels. When she told me she sold some, I asked if she had sold the pink set and she said yes. I was devastated, but they WERE hers to do as she pleased and although I was crushed a bit on the inside, I didn't let on.
The store didn't open till the next Monday. At the time I worked in the downtown a few blocks from the Antigue store, so on my break I walked down to the store and asked if they still had it. Since one little piece needed repair on the pink set the lady who owned the store with her husband, had taken the pink set home to have it repaired. When I asked if she'd sell it back to me, she said yes and within a few days she brought it back in..... and I bought it back.... plus a rhinestone bracelet that was Mom's and a crystal broach. There was one more piece I wish I had bought back, but by the time I decided I wanted it back, it was gone. Way too rare to stay in the store long. It had not been one of my favored pieces, so it was ok.
If she had not have just happened to stop in for a visit the night she did, I most likely would have never known what happened to these precious jewels from my childhood or if I had been told later, it most likely would have been to late to get them back.
So, happily in the end, I did get them back and later, I told my Mom what I had done. She was SO surprised and told me if she had any idea I felt that way about those pieces, that she would have gladly given them to me. There really was no way for her to know and I would have never asked her for them, I mean, she kept them for SO many years, that I thought they were sentimental to her!
Who knew she'd keep them for 60'ish years and then sell them to an antique shop?? LOL.... Not me!
So... there is my story of how I saved the family jewels. Fun story, right ?
