There is nothing more elegant and noble that is able to go with literally anything you may ever wear then a vintage brooch. The most important thing to clear up before diving into these beautiful pins is exactly how the word vintage is used to define a brooch. In retrospect, anything generally from the years 1950 – 1980 would be considered vintage. With that in mind, when it comes to vintage brooches, one could say that any style gems, jewels or other materials that were in popular use between the 50s and the 80s would satisfy the requirement for being vintage. To go a little bit deeper into the subject matter to gain a good sense of clarity, a vintage brooch pin would have to be made with any type of material that was in style between the years of 1950 and 1980; while these brooches can be replicas or made to be similar to specific brooches in the past, to be deemed a true vintage brooch the pins themselves do not need to be replicas – they only need to be made from materials used between the defined time periods. Below is a list of the most popular types of vintage brooches you can buy or collect today.
Vintage Rhinestone Brooch – Rhinestone is at the top of the list because it is one of the most popular materials used to create any type of vintage pin. Rhinestones were extremely popular and were used in the majority of brooches produced around the period of the 1960s. Rhinestone is an imitation diamond produced from either glass, rock or sand. A quality rhinestone would fool anybody into thinking it was a real diamond so long as it was created and produced properly with tender loving effort. These rhinestone brooches are inexpensive and fit the bill when it comes to getting a great looking brooch for a tiny price tag. The best thing is instead of purchasing one expensive vintage diamond brooch you can purchase many vintage rhinestone brooches and still make out like a bandit in terms of what you save.
Vintage Crystal Brooch – Crystal is special material because, as they say, nothing shines as prestigious and pristine as a crystal. A lot of big name designers are starting to come out with crystal brooches and with good reason – you wouldn’t find a more luminous and bright material then crystal for your pin. Crystal has always been such a universal material and has been worn throughout the vintage period in high esteem. When it comes to a vintage crystal brooch, it is more so the design that makes it vintage rather the the crystal itself.
Vintage Cameo Brooch – This type of vintage jewelry throws a lot of people off; the word cameo is used in this sense to refer to the fact that some type of picture, either a painting or an actual photograph, appears somewhere in the brooch itself. Just like the word cameo refers to a sort of appearance of a person within a TV show, the word cameo is used with the brooch to denote the fact that some type of figure or person is present within the brooch itself. There really is no limit when it comes to what you can have inside of the vintage cameo brooch. In order to remain in the theme of all things vintage, cameo brooches during this time usually depicted paintings instead of photographs, understandably since photography was not as far along as it is now and the tiny photographs required were either impossible or too expensive to justify the cause.
Vintage Silver Brooch – Silver was another one of the most popular materials used to create a vintage brooch for the time period. Again, when it comes to these types of pins, the least amount of emphasis should be placed on the material and the most on the design of the object itself. One of the greatest things about silver is that you will be a lot of vintage silver brooches are fashioned to look like anything from people to things you would find in nature such as trees or clouds. Because silver is a metal that is able to be shaped and molded, you will find a lot of variation on all of the different options available.
Vintage Pearl Brooch – These types of brooches were popular with members of higher society during this time period. Unlike silver, pearls cannot be worked into a specific shape, however, the pearls are almost always set around another type of precious metal or background which is open to a lot of variation.
Vintage Enamel Brooch – This is another one that throws a lot of people off. What the word enamel here refers to is the casting of the brooch as a whole. The enamel is a hard backing that usually has various types of precious jewels, gems or stones set on to it. It is common to see decorations or themes made out of the enamel using the jewels, gems or stones. For example, you might see a brooch made out of enamel set to the theme of a flower pot or even a picnic basket.
Vintage Butterfly Brooch – This was an extremely popular type of vintage brooch. This ones name says it all – the brooch was typically made to resemble a butterfly using all different types of stones, jewels and gems, usually in combination to replicate the form and shape of a butterfly in flight.
Vintage Bird Brooch – These types of brooches were plentiful and made to look like almost any kind of bird you can ever imagine. Blue jays and red cardinals were of high demand during their respectful periods.
One helpful reminder for when you are looking for a vintage brooch is to consider the fact that vintage brooches come two ways. The first way you will find these brooches is in still uncirculated and originally unsealed packaging from its respectful time period. The second way you will encounter and come across vintage brooches is from people who handcraft their own replications and interpretations. One is not any better then the other, however, uncirculated types of pins might carry more value and pull more weight with those who are looking to collect them.
