There is a group of DeLizza & Elster jewelry that has always occupied an unusual place in the Juliana story.
They are large, whimsical, often articulated pendants — butterflies, dogs, rabbits, bears, clowns, soldiers and other wonderful characters. Many surviving examples carry the letters DEC, although sometimes you have to know exactly where to look to find them.
When Paula and I wrote Juliana Jewelry – The Last Generation, we included a short chapter devoted to these pieces. At the time, however, we kept them somewhat separate from the rest of the jewelry in the book.
There was a reason for that.
Looking back all these years later, I think it is time to bring these unusual pieces back into the DeLizza & Elster story.
The Designs Were DeLizza & Elster
There is no question about where the designs originated.
In Memoirs of a Fashion Jewelry Manufacturer, Frank DeLizza discusses the cast jewelry DeLizza & Elster was producing during this period. On page 108 he describes character pendants made with rhinestone chain and names an extraordinary assortment of designs.
Among them were an elephant head, guitar, Aladdin, a huge butterfly, puppy dog, octopus, bear, balloon, clowns, dancing bear, toy soldier, cowboy, Minuteman, mermaid and magician.
Frank even refers to the group as “our puppet line.”
That is an important distinction.
These are not pieces that collectors later decided simply looked like DeLizza & Elster jewelry. Frank himself documented these designs as part of the company’s work.
But There Is More to the Story
The finished pieces marked DEC were not actually manufactured in the DeLizza & Elster factory.
Frank told us personally that the designs originated at DeLizza & Elster and that the original molds were made there, but production of the DEC-marked jewelry was handled outside the D&E factory.
That is the history we recorded in Chapter 15 of Juliana Jewelry – The Last Generation:
“Pieces Marked DEC were designed by DeLizza & Elster, but NOT manufactured by them. The original molds were made by the DeLizza & Elster Co.”
Frank also told us there had been a problem with the business arrangement.
Mrs. DeLizza was particularly unhappy about what had happened and maintained that DeLizza & Elster had never been paid.
Exactly what “not paid” meant was never completely clear to us. I do not know whether the dispute involved payment for the molds, the designs, the jewelry produced or some other part of the arrangement, and I do not want to add details to the story that Frank did not give us.
What I do remember clearly is that this was not a subject Frank liked to discuss.
So we did not press him.
Perhaps that is one reason these pieces spent so many years on the edge of the D&E collecting world.
Even the DEC Signature Is Unusual
One of the most fascinating things about these pieces is the way they are marked.
If you are expecting to turn one over and find “DEC” neatly stamped together in one location, you may not find it.
On some designs, the three letters are separated and placed on completely different parts of the piece.
On one of the articulated butterflies, for example, the letters are separated and appear on different parts of the casting rather than together as a conventional signature.
Other puppet designs place the letters in entirely different locations.
But here is the particularly interesting part:
The placement appears to be consistent within each individual design.
In other words, examples of the same design generally have the letters in the same respective locations, even though another puppet design may be marked in an entirely different way.
That makes the DEC marking itself an important identification feature.
As these pieces are added to the Is It Juliana Jewelry database, I hope we can begin documenting not only the individual designs, but also exactly where the D, E and C appear on each one.
What Does DEC Stand For?
That remains an unanswered question.
The pieces are marked DEC, but we do not have documentation establishing exactly what those initials were intended to mean.
When Paula and I were working with Frank, this was not a subject he enjoyed discussing, so we did not press him about the meaning of the mark.
For that reason, I don’t want to speculate now.
I have seen different explanations for DEC repeated over the years, but without period documentation I am not comfortable presenting any of them as fact.
What we can document is much more important than trying to interpret the initials:
The designs originated with DeLizza & Elster.
The original molds were made by DeLizza & Elster.
The DEC-marked finished pieces were manufactured outside the D&E factory.
If a collector someday turns up an original hang tag, packaging, invoice, advertisement, catalog or other period documentation explaining the DEC mark, I would very much like to see it.
Until then, the meaning of DEC remains one of the unanswered questions surrounding this fascinating group of jewelry.
A Remarkable Family of Designs
Once you begin looking at these pieces together, you realize what a wonderful and surprisingly large family they represent.
There are enormous articulated swallowtail butterflies, including versions decorated with cabochons and others with colorful enamel accents.
There are charming puppy dogs, a rabbit wearing a necktie and a teddy bear with that wonderfully quirky style of face seen on so many of these cast designs.
There are elaborate clowns carrying colorful balloons.
There are articulated soldiers and spectacular large figural pendants embellished with colorful glass beads.
These are some of the designs we illustrated in Chapter 15 of Juliana Jewelry – The Last Generation.
And Frank’s own list on page 108 of his memoir tells us there were still more designs in this family.
They are playful, sometimes eccentric and certainly very different from the rhinestone necklaces, bracelets and brooches most collectors picture when they hear the word Juliana.
But that is exactly what makes them so interesting.
They show another side of DeLizza & Elster — designers willing to experiment with cast metal, articulation, oversized scale, movement, color and humor.
Maybe It Is Time to Look at Them Differently
When we published Juliana Jewelry – The Last Generation, we wrote that we were including these pieces only to give DeLizza & Elster credit for their delightful designs. We did not assign values to them.
In many ways, we kept them at arm’s length.
At the time, with Frank involved in the book and knowing how he felt about the circumstances surrounding these pieces, that seemed like the respectful thing to do.
Today, I look at them differently.
We do not need to pretend that the DEC-marked pieces were manufactured inside the DeLizza & Elster factory.
They were not.
And we do not need to get into an argument about whether every DEC-marked piece should simply be called Juliana.
The real history is interesting enough.
These are documented DeLizza & Elster designs.
Their original molds were made by DeLizza & Elster.
Frank DeLizza discussed many of the designs in his own memoir.
And the unusual outside manufacturing arrangement that resulted in the DEC-marked pieces is itself part of the DeLizza & Elster story.
I think that makes them deserving of far more attention than they have received.
Bringing the DEC Designs Into IIJJ
I have been adding documented examples of these DEC-marked designs to the Is It Juliana Jewelry database.
My goal is not to erase the distinction between jewelry manufactured by DeLizza & Elster and these pieces produced elsewhere.
Quite the opposite.
I want IIJJ to preserve that distinction while also giving collectors a place to identify the designs, compare examples, document the unusual placement of the DEC letters and learn the history behind them.
For many years, these pieces have been something of the forgotten stepchildren of D&E collecting.
Maybe it is finally time to bring them out of the shadows.
They are unusual.
They are whimsical.
Some of them are downright strange.
But they are also part of the DeLizza & Elster design story.
And I think they deserve to be collected that way.
Do you own one of these DEC-marked puppet or figural pieces?
If you do, I would love to see it — especially clear photographs of the front and back and close-ups showing exactly where the individual D, E and C letters appear.
There may still be quite a bit of this story left for all of us to discover.
See the DEC Collection
A small group of documented DEC-marked DeLizza & Elster designs is currently available through Our Vintage Rose Jewelry.