Geneva Addison will be selling a store full of antique and vintage jewelry this Friday through Sunday. I posted about the sales that Addison and her mother put on for Eli Leon and Ron Morgan – they were spectacular and popular. This too is spectacular.

Shown above are African trade beads, which are also known as “aggry” and “slave beads.” From the 16th century into the early 20th century the decorative glass beads were used as a token money to exchange for African goods. The beads were made in Europe, especially in Venice.

The jewelry for sale is in large part the result of two buy-outs by Addison.  One was from the estate of a young woman who had specialized in African trade beads, Bedouin jewelry, and other African jewelry. The second buy-out was from the estate of an Austrian whose life experience fleeing Hitler left her something of a hoarder of jewelry that could be packed up and taken away on short notice.

Addison supplements the two estates with jewelry she has bought over the years and a collection of inexpensive Japanese costume jewelry from a family that owned a five and dime store in Vallejo.

Time out – tangent!  This imp surely looks like the imps in the relief sculpture at 2655.

 

I posted in some detail about the Shattuck imps here.

There are a few shelves of Bakelite and other plastics.

Bakelite, or polyoxybenzylmethyleneglycolanhydride, was the first plastic made from synthetic components. It is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin that was developed by the Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland in New York in 1907.

I find the jewelry that Addison is selling to be exquisitely beautiful. I know nothing about the materials or styles, only that what I see is beautiful.

Sale details:

3054 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley

Friday, August 24: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday, August 25: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sunday, August 26: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I know zero about jewelry.  BUT – I know beautiful and I know Geneva Addison.  I know that this is a good thing.  In third grade, the final paragraph of every book report that we wrote was to answer this question: would you recommend this book to others?  In that vein – yes, very much, I recommend this sale to others.