ANSWER: DISCUSSION OF CIRO
I recently purchased these earrings. They came in a Ciro box but I don't think they were originally purchased in it. The box is for pierced earrings. So I have 2 questions? The earrings are very well made clipped ones and to me look like KLJ design but are unsigned. Anyone recognise them? And Ciro jewellery - is it also unmarked as recently I have seen a few Ciro boxes with earrings that are unmarked.
Sue Weaver
I recently purchased these earrings. They came in a Ciro box but I don't think they were originally purchased in it. The box is for pierced earrings. So I have 2 questions? The earrings are very well made clipped ones and to me look like KLJ design but are unsigned. Anyone recognise them? And Ciro jewellery - is it also unmarked as recently I have seen a few Ciro boxes with earrings that are unmarked.
Sue Weaver
"Your query prompted me to take out an awesome enameled bracelet and pair of earrings I bought on Bond Street in London back in the 1980s at the Ciro shop. The only markings I can find on the pieces are what appears to be a script C followed by a period in a rectangular cartouche with clipped corners. There is also a c in a circle, no doubt standing for copyright. I am really not sure if all their jewelry is marked but these markings are small and faint so you may want to relook at your pieces." --Elaine Kula, 03/29/09
"They're beautiful. I store many of my unsigned pieces in boxes I may have with store names that I didn't buy the original piece from so I would say without a signature there's no way to prove attribution unless you can find the same piece signed. That's been a problem a few times I've bought something from a seller who said it was from the company on the box, then received the item and it was unmarked and I knew, no way was it from that company. The seller was not experienced enough to know that just because something is in a signed box, that alone doesn't make the jewelry in the box from the same company. We used to have a Ciro's here in NYC and I have a beautiful unsigned bracelet that I bought from them so I know from experience they did not always mark their jewelry. It's unsigned but my problem is I DON'T have the box, so there's no way I can prove it if I wanted to sell it as Ciro's even though I know it's true. I saw the same piece in a Schiffer book of my bracelet from the British company Fior which muddled it even more because I don't know who made for whom. Boucher used to make pieces for them and if they bought enough he would mark those pieces Ciro with his style number. I will assume they also bought from other companies without their name. If you're selling them it's better to err on the side of caution. Ciro also sold to a television shopping channel here and the jewelry shows up on ebay. I don't know if it's signed, but it does come in the Ciro box." --Robin Deutsch, 03/29/09
"As you know Ciro is my thorn in the side. I don't know much but what seem to be emerging is that you get CIRO pieces, or Ciro, and you also get pieces marked Trifari, Boucher, Bergere etc turning up in Ciro boxes on a regular basis. This implies that the Ciro shops, especially in America, sold the high quality manufacturers alongside their own lines in their shops. I have not been able to establish that they sold unmarked pieces. Have you looked very carefully at the earrings as sometimes the CIRO mark can be very tiny? I have seen earring backs like that marked Ciro but I think the design was widely used." --Mary in England, 03/29/09
Other Sizes: Original Medium