"Trifari's portrayal of the exotic in fashion". Thus the company describes its late 1950s "Caravan" collection.

Our necklace and earrings set has the Caravan spirit to a "T", with its "maharajah"-type cabochons and graceful gilt scrolls. Even its official color, "Burmese black", exudes a whiff of faraway tropical isles.

The collection showcases lucite elements with interesting names — "Kashmir" (for oval cabochons) and "Sumatra" for square ones — and interesting colors. Consider these hues: Bengal blue, Ganges green, Rajah red, and Bombay brown. Plus, as it describes in an ad, "a most unusual Burmese black".

The ad features a necklace and earrings that looks like a variation of ours, but in the brown hue. I found online a couple of exactly same design necklace and earrings, but in the green color. I found no black ones at all — indeed, like the ad says, it is "unusual".

All our pieces feature 3/4" x 1/2" glossy black lucite cabochons at the center of gilt scrolls inset with clear baguette crystals.

The necklace has five of the Burmese black oval links, with the gilt scrolls and clear baguette crystals in between them. The rest of the necklace consists of slinky snake chain, plus a short extension chain make of cable links.

The necklace is 16" long, and about 5/8" wide. It has a gilt hook clasp on one end and a ball drop on the other end.

Each earring has a Burmese black lucite in the center with a baguette-inset scroll overlapping it at the base and another one at the top. The earrings are 1 1/8" tall and 5/8" wide, and are clipbacks.

All the pieces are marked. The necklace has a Trifari stamp on the inside portion of the hook, and the earring clips are marked Trifari.

In overall good to very good condition. All the lucite cabochons are glossy and great shape, and all the crystals are original and intact. The gilt portions retain their hue, albeit a bit paler than they originally were, with age-appropriate wear. Still, this does not detract from the beauty of this set.