Creepy Vintage Costume Jewelry: Trifari, Joseff, HAR and Vogue Designs

Some vintage costume jewelry asks collectors to look twice—and the names on the back can matter as much as the design. Diane Love’s work for Trifari, zodiac brooches by Joseff of Hollywood, sculptural pieces marked HAR, and Vogue Jewelry’s uncanny figures all test the line between odd and appealing. Their prices vary widely, making them a useful reminder that unusual looks don’t tell the whole story of a collectible.

Diane Love’s Trifari designs and Joseff’s zodiac pieces include examples that can bring strong prices despite their unsettling appearance. HAR has its own high-priced curiosities, while Vogue’s zodiac figures tend to sit at the more affordable end. The appeal is personal, but maker, materials and design all shape the collecting story.

Diane Love’s strange Trifari vision

Diane Love brought a background in art history and studio art from Barnard College to Trifari in 1970. Brutalist forms were influencing decorative and wearable art, and Love combined hard-edged shapes with references to historical art. The resulting work looked unlike Trifari’s earlier output. Many designs have lasting Modernist appeal; a few lean into the eerie.

One striking example is a necklace inspired by Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess. Love modeled it in a Trifari advertisement, presenting a design that reads as a stylized lioness but may strike some viewers as an alien face. The necklaces were named “Shekmet,” and the pieces are marked Trifari. When new, they came with hang tags identifying Love and explaining the historical references. That detail is useful context for collectors since the mark alone doesn’t name the designer.

These necklaces typically sell in the $1,500–3,000 range when they appear for sale. Other Diane Love designs, including more conventionally attractive Modernist pieces, generally fall in the $350–1,000 range. The spread shows how a distinctive design can stand apart even within one designer’s body of work.

Joseff’s zodiac brooches reward set builders

Joseff of Hollywood is known for jewelry finished to photograph well under studio lighting. Most zodiac designs in the series use familiar animal or symbolic imagery, but a few take a stranger turn. Aquarius resembles a contortionist, Gemini appears as two unsettling infants, and Libra shows a hand holding scales. Collectors completing the set may want all twelve, regardless of whether every design appeals on its own.

The brooches and matching earrings were upscale pieces in their day. A 1946 New York Times advertisement showed versions made in karat gold and sterling silver. Those examples are marked for metal content; the series also came in gold- and silver-plated finishes. Most brooches now sell for $120–200 each, including the less popular designs. Completing the dozen can therefore add up.

For set builders, it can help to keep the design differences and metal marks in view while searching. A piece’s finish affects what it is, while a complete series may be a separate collecting goal. More on the appeal of completing a jewelry run appears in this guide to costume jewelry set collecting.

HAR’s reptilian forms and strong prices

HAR was the mark used by Hargo Creations. The company operated from 1955 to the late 1960s, yet some of its late-1950s and early-1960s designs remain sought after by high-end costume jewelry collectors.

The Dragon and Cobra pieces stand out for their green, verdigris-like finish and layered forms. The Cobra necklace is built around a snake body divided into sections, with the head tucked among the sculptural elements. The effect is intentionally dramatic—and not for every collector. Those drawn to the design should expect to pay more than $1,000 for a HAR Cobra necklace.

HAR’s Dragon design shares that unusual green surface and dimensional approach. For identification, the HAR mark connects these pieces to a maker whose short production history is part of their collecting interest.

Vogue zodiac figures at a lower price point

Vogue Jewelry’s zodiac series is a different kind of curiosity. The figures pair pixie-like human heads with animal bodies, creating combinations that can feel more surreal than elegant. Sagittarius is comparatively playful; the scorpion and human-headed crab are harder to overlook.

Many examples sell for less than $50, sometimes considerably less, despite being made of gold-plated sterling silver. A low price doesn’t make the designs uninteresting: their unusual construction and materials give collectors plenty to examine. The Vogue mark helps place them within the maker’s output, while the specific zodiac figure can make all the difference to a buyer.

These four makers show how widely prices and reactions can differ across vintage costume jewelry. Compare the mark, materials, design and condition, then check comparable sales for the specific piece. The oddest item in a collection may turn out to be the one that keeps people looking.

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Pamela Siegel is a freelance writer and author who has been educating collectors for more than two decades. In addition to three books on antiques and collectibles, she frequently shares her expertise through online writing and articles for print publications. Pamela is also the co-founder of Costume Jewelry Collectors Int’l (CJCI) and the proprietor of Chic Antiques by Pamela.

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