My family and other animal jewellery 2022

Each year I look to find a subject to collect in costume jewellery. I source antique, vintage and pre-owned jewellery - as well as new. There are two criteria applied:

: It has to be cheap - usually £2 or less!

: Or it is unusual and rare or very collectable. If I pay more than £2.

For 2022, I decided to collect animal jewellery, as well as bird, insect, sea life and reptile pieces. My 2 year old grandson gave me the idea. I was watching him sort the many plastic animal toys and naming the various species. So just to start this year off. I am showcasing all the animal costume jewellery that I have at the moment. Most are in my own collection and some are for sale. 

Animal jewellery Part 1 (With a few eagle brooches thrown in!)

Black cat brooch on a pumpkin. Part of my Halloween jewellery collection. Made of resin and probably from the 1990s - 2000s.

Gold metal cat brooch - this one is stood on a broomstick and was made by Avon unsigned circa 1990s.

Egyptian chariot horse ring. Part of my own Egyptian jewellery collection. Unsigned. Gold tone metal with a black enamel to show the chariot riding Pharaoh cameo off. Vintage of about the 1970s

A Dalmatian dog brooch - modern in cream and black enamel (For sale) Costume jewellery made in the last 10 years. Pre -owned

Marcasite deer vintage brooch with a mother and baby (For sale) silver metal jewellery that is cute. Unsigned.

Another vintage marcasite stag deer brooch in silver metal. Unsigned and in own collection. Deer jewellery is ideal for wearing during the winter and at Christmas. 

A majestic vintage Egyptian eagle brooch. In my own collection. Enamel of green, turquoise, white and red with turquoise resin cabochon. Signed on the back but unfortunately unable to make out the manufacturer.   

Another eagle brooch. This is modern and brought for my birthday a couple of years ago. How time flies. In a dark gun metal colour with sparkling enamel and a pave of clear and black diamante. Very large and eye catching. This is a Butler & Wilson piece of jewellery and in my own collection.  

Now I collect junk jewellery in plastic. I have two of these plastic brooch pins. It has a cream horn with two dangles. This one has an Egyptian pyramid and a camel. So ideal for show casing in an animal jewellery collection.  

An ethnic brass bangle with an elephant pattern. This Asian elephant bangle also has green enamel and panels of mother of pearl shell. Rustic but very pretty. For sale and has been previously owned of unknown age.

Another animal bangle. This one has an African elephant pattern with trees in between. Made of resin to look like wood and previously owned. For sale.

Above are a selection of different vintage bracelets with elephants on. They were made as tourist pieces in the early part of the twentieth century. Each has a Hamsa hand dangle at the end. Some signed Morocco and some with a filigree finished amulet Hamsa hand. They are in my own collection of Ethnic jewellery.  

Now this is an unusual vintage celluloid necklace of elephants. It has a screw cap fastening in celluloid with a row of elephants in cream colour with small round beads. Then ending in an elephant pendant bead. The African elephants are all the same size. Unknown age, but probably late Victorian to early twentieth century. For sale. 

I love wearing this green enamel reindeer brooch at Christmas. Very festive and with a gold tone finish. I brought this one from a clothes shop in Solihull that has since closed down. It is in my own collection.

Another antique vintage brooch in my own collection. This is a French Depose celluloid brooch. It unfortunately has some parts missing. It depicts a horse drawn carriage with a gentleman standing by it. The missing pieces are a woman and reins to the horse. Cut out details in celluloid and has a twisted gold tone frame. Unmarked. This type of brooch was made with many different scenes and are very collectable. 

When I spotted this leopard ring, I just had to buy it. It was in a small stall at the Clothes Show at the NEC in Birmingham. About 8 years ago and was new. It is in brass with lots of sparkling green diamante and red eyes. This majestic big cat has a larger diamante in red held in its mouth. He is in my own collection 

Another brass ring in my own collection. This lion ring is all in brass just cast with the male king of the jungle lion features. I don't know why I like him but I do! It is in a small size - so think it is more for a female to wear.

Small but cute celluloid monkey charm. This vintage costume jewellery is part of a set of 3 - the other 2 lost in time. It shows the monkey with it's hands over it's eyes. For see no evil. Would have been part of a charm bracelet. For sale.

This is the second vintage elephant brooch that I have collected in plastic. The horn has two elephant charm dangles. From around the mid twentieth century and made to look like celluloid. In my kitsch plastic collection of cheap jewellery. 

Another monkey brooch that has found it's way into my plastic jewellery collection. Love the baby monkey on a branch with a mother monkey dangling below. In celluloid and has a brown finish on top of the cream.  

Apparently this is a vintage Barry Goldwater elephant brooch made in 1964 for the presidential election in America. No idea how it ended up on a vintage jewellery website in England. The website is long gone and sold cheap jewellery. I brought it and re-enamelled it. Sorry Barry but I changed the black glasses to blue. I hadn't a clue on what this cute little brooch stood for at the time. Just a few years ago I was researching political jewellery and came across this one. For sale as is. The new owner can change the glasses back to black - if they so wish.  

Another cute rabbit brooch. This one is part of my own collection and is a Mrs rabbit by Danecraft jewellery. In an all gold tone with pink and white enamel finished with green diamante eyes. Part of my own collection. She is watering flowers by a bird table.

This is a mr rabbit brooch by Danecraft. He is a gardener pushing a truck filled with red apples. Sporting a green pair of enamelled overalls. Part of my own collection, brought to make a picture for my husband for a wedding anniversary. The anniversary is long gone, but one day I will complete what I started out to do.

I will have another 3 blogs shortly of sea creatures, birds and reptiles. So follow this blog for more