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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.

July 202331 Images9408 visitsAlbum by Jan GaughanPhotos by Jan Gaujghan
Enlarge photo 1 Berry
Enlarge photo 2 Forbidden Fruit on original card. Photo courtesy Pat Seal
Enlarge photo 3 Fruit Salad!
Enlarge photo 4 Green & Pink Grapes
Enlarge photo 5 Lemon
Enlarge photo 6 Lemon with opaque lucite and white milk glass. Photo courtesy Rita Martin.
Enlarge photo 7 Strawberry
Enlarge photo 8 Orange
Enlarge photo 9 Bee Hive. Private collection
Enlarge photo 10 Black Grapes
Enlarge photo 11 Plum
Enlarge photo 12 Berry
Enlarge photo 13 Pear
Enlarge photo 14 Carrots (Private collection)
Enlarge photo 15 Indian Corn (Private collection)
Enlarge photo 16 Hard to find scatter pin - grapes
Enlarge photo 17 Pink grapes white opaque stones.
Enlarge photo 18 Naked Grapes. Photo courtesy Rita Martin.
Enlarge photo 19 Fully dressed grapes with embedded milk glass stones.
Enlarge photo 20 Hard to Find - Purple grapes amethyst rhinestones.
Enlarge photo 21 White Grapes green rhinestones.
Enlarge photo 22 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

Enlarge photo 23 Strawberries with red lucite red stones
Pears with amber lucite light topaz stones
Berries with clear lucite fuchsia stones

Enlarge photo 24 Rare Caterpillar 2 1/2" x 1/2". Yellow lucite with jonquil and blue/green Aurora Borealis rhinestones. (Private Collection)
Enlarge photo 25 Peach
Enlarge photo 26 Mushroom
Private Collection

Enlarge photo 27 Pineapple
Enlarge photo 28 Figs?
Enlarge photo 29 Strawberry Forbidden Fruit Comparison to Crown Trifari Strawberry Pin shown to the right which is NOT Forbidden Fruit
Enlarge photo 30 Crown Trifari plastic strawberry pin. NOT Forbidden Fruit.
Enlarge photo 31 Artisan Made Lucite Fruit Parure. Custom made by jewelry artisan Dinah Taylor. For custom work e-mail Dinah