• Public Gallery  • Help  
• Join Now!  • Log In  • Feature Tour
 Jan Gaughan | Home > 
Forbidden Fruit Lucite Jewelry-Austria


Desirable Forbidden Fruit lucite jewelry with embedded rhinestones.
Originally thought to be made in Austria in the late 1940's - early 1950's but were actually made in the US with Austrian rhinestones.
Characteristics of "Forbidden Fruit" jewelry is that they are either made of an opaque lucite or a translucent lucite of some color (but can also be clear) with embedded rhinestones. An example of coloring is the lemon which is a translucent yellow lucite with embedded yellow rhinestones. Forbidden Fruit typically has some sort of metal incorporated into the piece like the enamel painted leaves on the fruits, or the body of the butterfly, the bee on the bee hive, the stem of the mushroom, the husk on the corn, the radish tops, the eggplant leaf, etc. One piece that doesn't have metal is the watermelon. They were Austrian made and were most likely produced in the late 1940's early 1950's. In Harrice Miller's Official Price Guide to Costume Jewelry (Third Edition) page 76-77 it states they were made in the 1930's but most feel they were made later. My understanding is that the original cards that the pieces were sold on were labeled Forbidden Fruit so this name has been generally used for all the Austrian lucite embedded rhinestone pieces - not just the fruit pieces.

Several of my pieces were featured in Ann Pitman's Volume 3 Inside the Jewelry Box on pages 7-12.

Date(s): July 2023. Album by Jan Gaughan. Photos by Jan Gaujghan. 1 - 31 of 31 Total. 0 Visits.
The annual premium subscription has ended and the account is fully intact.
If you are the account owner, please renew. Click
here.