What Frank Actually Said is a series about looking past assumptions and returning to the history Frank DeLizza recorded himself. The Weiss connection is a particularly good example: the name on the jewelry does not necessarily tell us which factory made it.
In Memoirs of a Fashion Jewelry Manufacturer, Frank identifies Albert Weiss among D&E's early customers. He later describes making small dress clips for Kramer and Weiss, alongside D&E's continuing production of duette clips. These firsthand accounts establish a real manufacturing relationship, but they do not identify every surviving Weiss design.
Let's start with what Frank documented, and then examine the jewelry and original advertising that make the relationship so interesting.
Albert Weiss Was an Early D&E Customer
In Chapter Two, covering the company's founding years of 1947–1949, Frank includes Albert Weiss among D&E's early customers (pages 15–17). The reference establishes Weiss as a customer; it does not, by itself, assign a particular surviving brooch or set to that early period.
That distinction matters because collectors often associate a piece of vintage costume jewelry exclusively with the name on its signature or advertisement. In reality, the company selling or marketing the jewelry and the company manufacturing it were not always the same.
Small Dress Clips for Kramer and Weiss
In Chapter Four, covering 1953–1956, Frank describes D&E continuing to make duette clips and producing small dress clips for Kramer and Weiss (page 36). This is more specific than a customer list: he identifies a type of jewelry manufactured for those firms.
The same passage discusses ongoing duette-clip production, but it should not be read as proof that every duette marketed by Weiss was made by D&E. Nor does the memoir identify every individual design we see today. We still have to examine surviving jewelry and its construction.
Weiss Was the Brand, Not the Manufacturer
There is an important distinction behind the Weiss name. Albert Weiss marketed jewelry made for his company by outside manufacturers rather than manufacturing the pieces himself. DeLizza & Elster was one of those suppliers, as Frank's memoir documents. A WEISS signature identifies the company that marketed the jewelry; it does not necessarily identify the factory that made it.
Weiss enjoyed considerable success during the 1950s and 1960s, but the business did not continue indefinitely. According to Jewelry ID's history of Albert Weiss, his son Michael took over in the late 1960s and the company went bankrupt and closed in 1971. That date is worth remembering when studying Weiss jewelry and later D&E designs.
The brooch in the advertisement
The Flowering Frost advertisement presents a spreading arrangement of navette rhinestones with small round stones extending beyond them. It offered the pin and clip earrings in ice blue or white crystal.
Look closely at how the navette rhinestones are arranged, the center of the brooch, and the small three-stone sprays extending outward. These details match the design shown in the original Flowering Frost advertisement, helping us connect the surviving brooch to the jewelry Weiss advertised.
The surviving brooch is unsigned, but the Flowering Frost advertisement identifies the design offered under the Weiss name. That connection becomes particularly interesting alongside Frank's firsthand account of D&E manufacturing for Weiss and the distinctive construction visible on the reverse of the brooch. The advertisement, the documented business relationship, and the physical details are stronger evidence together than a general resemblance between two pieces of rhinestone jewelry.
This comparison raises another interesting possibility. DeLizza & Elster may have supplied the same design to more than one customer. While Weiss advertised the design under its own name, the unsigned example suggests that D&E may also have produced it for other customers. We cannot know who originally sold this particular unsigned brooch, but it reminds us that a design was not necessarily exclusive to the company whose name appeared in an advertisement.
Riveted 3 Spoke Florettes
Paula Knutson catalogued these small projecting components as D&E Riveted 3 Spoke Florettes. Each brings three chatons together in a little spray. Their construction and attachment are more useful to compare than simply counting three nearby stones.
Related components also appear on Weiss-signed jewelry in our research files. The blue set below gives us another example to study, with the Weiss marks clearly visible on the earrings.
A shared component is supporting evidence, not a complete identification by itself. We compare the settings, metal framework, joins and overall design as well. This is where Frank’s documented Weiss connection and the physical details of the surviving jewelry can inform one another—without pretending that one fact proves every attribution.
A very different Weiss look: the large bib
The large bib necklace takes the story well beyond the delicate ice-blue sprays. High-domed blue cabochons, richly colored rhinestones and substantial gold-tone metalwork create a bold statement.
Paula and I illustrated this necklace and its earrings on page 19 of Juliana Jewelry – The Last Generation, explicitly identifying the set as D&E for Weiss. The reverse detail below includes a Weiss mark.
Our book places the set in a chapter on 1970s–80s high-domed cabochon jewelry. That chapter covers a broad design category; it does not assign this particular Weiss set to the 1980s. Because Albert Weiss's company closed in 1971, we should not interpret the chapter title as the production date of this bib. Frank's page 91 account, in the chapter beginning in 1970, discusses D&E's development of castings and high-domed plastic cabochons. This provides manufacturing context for the style without claiming that Frank discussed this exact necklace.
What Frank's Account—and the Jewelry—Tell Us
Frank's memoir provides something jewelry alone cannot: documented evidence that Albert Weiss was an early D&E customer, followed by a specific reference to small dress clips made for Kramer and Weiss in the 1950s. That manufacturing connection is well worth studying, even though the memoir does not name every surviving Weiss design.
The Flowering Frost advertisement supplies another kind of evidence, showing how a striking rhinestone design was sold under the Weiss name. Studying an unsigned surviving brooch alongside the advertisement invites careful comparison, particularly of the projecting rhinestone florettes and reverse construction.
The signed examples and the dramatic bib illustrated as D&E for Weiss in our book add still more context. None of these examples means every Weiss piece was made by DeLizza & Elster. It means that a Weiss signature—or the absence of a signature—is only part of the story.
The next time you see Weiss jewelry, remember what Frank actually told us: the name on a piece and the name of the manufacturer can be different. Historical records, construction and documented comparisons belong together.
For additional comparisons, explore the Weiss entries in the Is It Juliana Jewelry database.
See a surviving example: Signed Weiss aurora borealis rhinestone clip earrings made by DeLizza & Elster are available in the shop.
References: Frank DeLizza, Memoirs of a Fashion Jewelry Manufacturer, pp. 15–17 (early customers), p. 36 (continuing duette-clip production and small dress clips for Kramer and Weiss), and p. 91 (later cast jewelry and high-domed cabochons); Paula Knutson and Karla Wacker, Juliana Jewelry – The Last Generation, p. 19; original Flowering Frost advertisement and surviving jewelry shown above; Jewelry ID, Albert Weiss Jewelry Company History (1971 closure and bankruptcy). Three-spoke florette terminology credited to Paula Knutson.