Bakelite jewellery that cost pennies in the 1930s and early 1940s can be worth five-figure sums today, according to William Doyle Galleries in New York, where a single-owner collection to be auctioned on November 1st and 2nd is expected to fetch up to $190,000 (€215,664).
Dr Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite in 1909. Initially used in telephone and car parts, electrical insulation and heat-resistant radio cases, it was also used for kitchenware, billiard balls, clock cases, umbrella handles and costume jewellery.
Because Bakelite could be easily carved, moulded, polished and was inexpensive to produce, Bakelite jewellery inspired a fashion trend between 1933 and 1941, says the auction house.
Mr Sebastian Clarke, a specialist in the furniture department at William Doyle Galleries, says Bakelite jewellery is now "amazingly desirable". "There's a huge market for Bakelite, with people willing to pay thousands of dollars, despite the fact that, in the 1930s, it was pennies at the time," he says.
Then, "people would buy the bracelet just raw and get a hot knife and carve it, paint it and decorate it. So now you've got these one-of-a-kind pieces that are worth tons of money."
While thin two-millimetre bracelets - spacers - are only worth two or three dollars, because there are so many of them, items like the spiky-looking Philadelphia bracelet, a heavy-hinged laminated bracelet with multicoloured "teeth", fetch thousands of pounds. One sold in the 1980s "for $250, which at the time was one of the highest prices. Then two years ago, one sold for $17,000," he says.
A Philadelphia bracelet in the forthcoming auction is estimated at $3,000 to $5,000, relatively low compared to that $17,000. Mr Clarke says: "When that sold and went through the roof, all of a sudden people started finding them in their closets. So the market was somewhat flooded. My estimates are also low because the market's going to be set by the buyers. We've got so many people interested in this that provided I keep the estimates low and I get the descriptions right, it'll do great."
So-called "apple juice" clear Bakelite bracelets, carved on the inside, painted and decorated perhaps with fish or dogs, are worth anything from $500 to $1,500 dollars.
A Bakelite Pumpkin Man brooch in the forthcoming auction, with googly eyes set on a painted wooden body, and straw arms and legs, was purchased at an auction last year for $20,000. Some four-and-a-half to five inches high, its estimate in the forthcoming auction is the relatively low $6,000 to $8,000. If that $20,000 may have been too high, "with a low estimate you can entice people in the door and hopefully watch it hit $15,000 or $16,000," he says.
Bakelite radios fetch "anything from $500 to $3,000, based on the quality, the condition, the size." It doesn't matter if the radio doesn't work, he says. "It's the shell that counts. Just like vintage cars. "
Two-tone Bakelite kitchenware, such as knives, forks, salt and peppershakers, "can be worth $5 or $10 apiece. So if you have a set of 30, that's a good amount of money," he says.
If you want to know how much a piece of Bakelite could be worth, Mr Clarke recommends you do a search on, for instance, "bakelite' and "fish" on Ebay.com. It will show what's for sale with those keywords, while if you click on completed auctions, you can find out how much similar items fetched.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
