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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. 8596 Visits.
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Berry

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Forbidden Fruit on original card. Photo courtesy Pat Seal

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Fruit Salad!

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Green & Pink Grapes

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Lemon

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Lemon with opaque lucite and white milk glass. Photo courtesy Rita Martin.

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Strawberry

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Orange

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Bee Hive. Private collection

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Black Grapes

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Plum

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Berry

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Pear

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Carrots (Private collection)

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Indian Corn (Private collection)

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Hard to find scatter pin - grapes

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Pink grapes white opaque stones.

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Naked Grapes. Photo courtesy Rita Martin.

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Fully dressed grapes with embedded milk glass stones.

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Hard to Find - Purple grapes amethyst rhinestones.

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White Grapes green rhinestones.

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Large Butterfly (2" x 1 3/4") in red lucite with red rhinestones and small butterfly (1 1/4" X 3/4") with red lucite and amethyst rhinestones.

Private Collection


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Strawberries with red lucite red stones
Pears with amber lucite light topaz stones
Berries with clear lucite fuchsia stones


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Rare Caterpillar 2 1/2" x 1/2". Yellow lucite with jonquil and blue/green Aurora Borealis rhinestones. (Private Collection)

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Peach

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Mushroom
Private Collection


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Pineapple

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Figs?

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Strawberry Forbidden Fruit Comparison to Crown Trifari Strawberry Pin shown to the right which is NOT Forbidden Fruit

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Crown Trifari plastic strawberry pin. NOT Forbidden Fruit.

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Artisan Made Lucite Fruit Parure. Custom made by jewelry artisan Dinah Taylor. For custom work e-mail Dinah

 
   
 
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