Exquisite Vintage, Dual-Head Gemini, Silver  & Gold Plated Brooch.
Measures:

General history: Costume jewelry has been part of culture for almost 300 years. During the 18th century, jewelers began making pieces with inexpensive glass. In the 19th century,costume jewelrymade of semi-precious material came into the market.

Designs: Costume jewelry was made with unconventional and non-precious materials like gold plated brass, wood, and leather. The world's economy during and after World War II greatly influencedjewelrytrends and markets. The war effort's need for platinum and alloy metals lead to manydesignersworking with yellow or pink gold.

Adorning Fashion: The History of Costume Jewellery to
Modern Times.   By Phyllis Schiller July 26, 2020

Costume jewelry started as an affordable alternative to luxury, but top brands like Chanel have since lent it a legitimacy of its own, says author Deanna Farneti Cera. From the outset, costume jewelry also known as fashion jewelry paralleled the styles of its more precious fine counterparts. Allowing the growing middle class affordable ways to adorn themselves, this category offered aesthetically pleasing but less expensive designs. In her beautifully illustrated, fact-filled book Adorning Fashion: The History of Costume Jewellery to Modern Times, author Deanna Farneti Cera offers a comprehensive guide to the topic. An international expert on European and American fashion jewelry, she follows the categorys evolution over three centuries from the mid-1700s through the 1980s and discusses the materials, manufacturing techniques, inspirations and influences that went into the development of different styles.

Rise of the non-precious In the late 18th century, the bourgeoisie was a new social class born with the first Industrial Revolution, and its members wanted the privilege to wear jewelry previously reserved for royalty and nobles, Cera explains. As they were not rich enough to afford fine jewelry, imitation jewelry with the same look but made in non-precious materials started to appear. These non-precious pieces were conceived with the same models, colors and techniques used in fine jewelry, according to Cera, and during the 19th century, they gradually acquired more and more success across society as adornments. Aiding this process in the early 20th century was French designer Gabrielle Coco Chanel, who declared that really elegant women were those who could mix together different jewelry, real and fake, suitable for each occasion as foreseen by the dress code of those days, Cera continues. This lent greater legitimacy to non-precious jewelry, with designers and makers conceiving different models and color combinations than those in fine jewelry. As such, she says, bijoux de couture [non-precious jewelry meant for haute couture
dresses] and fashion jewelry started to be created with the aim to complete an outfit and not as a status symbol. Clip in gilded metal, pte de verre, enamel beads, and red glass conteries, part of a set with matching earrings, attributed to Elsa Schiaparelli, designed by Jean Schlumberger, France, second half of the 1930s