Eugene Joseff
(1905 - 1948)
Joseff was labeled: "Jeweler for the Silver Screen". His beautiful stones came from Austria and Czechoslovakia. Other materials he used included wood, glass, plastic, tin, platinum, special antique gold and silver metals and other precious metals and gemstones. Joseff produced brooches, necklaces, badges and parures of jewelry the film stars enjoyed wearing. The “parures,” refers to a two-piece set consisting of a necklace and earrings. However, these sets could vary to include a brooch, rather than a necklace, or even all three pieces. Film stars including Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe wore the studio jewels off screen, inspiring Joseff to create a retail line that was sold in the finest stores in the United States. The power and influence of Hollywood was so great that Joseff’s jewelry became a runaway success. Over the following two decades Joseff became the foremost costume jewelry designer for the Hollywood movie industry. These retail pieces have a huge following among today’s collectors.
Eventually selected pieces of Joseff-Hollywood jewelry were made for sale to the public through jewelry shops and over-the-counter at high fashion department stores. Because Joseff took his lead from history, inevitably his pieces were varied in style, influenced by anything from Art Deco to astrology.
While most American costume jewelers were based on the East Coast, Eugene Joseff decided to go west, where he found in the Hollywood film industry a perfect audience for his exotic designs. Joseff researched the jewelry of relevant eras or cultures and reproduced it in a way that would look well on screen. His work appeared on Shirley Temple in The Little Princess, on Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind, and on Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra
Joseff chose to rent rather than sell his jewelry to the studios, and this allowed him to amass an archive of over three million pieces. Although Joseff produced a staggering range of styles, his pieces share certain unique characteristics that make them easy to spot. He developed a special dull matte finish for both his gold – and silver – tone metal, which minimized the glare of powerful studio lighting, and he carried this practice into his retail line. Unusually for a costume jeweler, Joseff made a large number of plain metal pieces or pieces with limited quantities of neutrally colored pastes. His product lines included flowers, frogs, owls, bees, beaded men, and bows that had fantastic details.
In 1948, Eugene Joseff married Joan Castle. Joan worked next to Joseff and helped with his business. That same year Joseff died while piloting his own airplane. Joan continued with Joseff’s thriving company, Joseff-Hollywood, until her death in 2010.
The jewelry made by Joseff-Hollywood was marked in several ways: Joseff-Hollywood or only Joseff, and could be in script or block lettering. Some early pieces of Joseff’s were unmarked but were recognized as Joseff because of their unique design.
The company started doing aerospace work during World War II, and that branch kept the company sustainable. The foundry still makes brackets, handles, levers and the like for the C-17 transport and the F-18 fighter.
