FLORENZA JEWELRY
-Located at 406 West 31st Street near the NYC garment district
-Founded in 1940 and incorporated in 1953
-“Florenza” name was trademarked in 1956
-In general, sold only to jobbers/wholesalers and did not advertise its products
-Dan Kasoff was the only designer
-Company ceased operations early in 1981
According to his son Larry, Dan Kasoff would typically spend part of his week walking past the large New York City department stores and also fine jewelry boutiques to see what was in the windows. Then he would make notes, and decide what types of items to include in the next Florenza line. No doubt Dan's efforts to make sure that Florenza jewelry was always in fashion helped to keep the company growing and in good financial condition. So that is why Florenza jewelry doesn't really have a single "look" or style.
Customers of Dan Kasoff Inc. were mainly wholesalers who purchased their Florenza-branded merchandise, and sold it to retailers or distributers. However, over the years the company did have some customers for whom they designed and manufactured jewelry branded with the customer's name. The companies for which Kasoff produced jewelry with the customer's mark include:
Ballet Fashions by Benedikt Capri Coro Karu (Kaufman-Ruderman) Estee Lauder Lorraine Marsel Parfums D’orsay Revlon Rosenfeld Imports Royal of Pittsburg
The Florenza brand name was trademarked, but Dan Kasoff also relied heavily on the protection afforded by copyright law, and began marking his jewelry with the Florenza brand and copyright symbol in the early 1950's. Per Dan Kasoff's son, Larry, the company vigorously pursued anyone that copied their designs, and went to court five times, winning all five cases.
As an aside regarding the use of copyright symbols on jewelry designs, many companies were using the symbol well before the 1955 Trifari lawsuit decision. Obviously, Trifari had to be using it before the decision. Hollycraft used the COPR mark, an alternative copyright designation used in place of the more popular (c), beginning in 1950 on its jewelry. So jewelry produced in the early 1950's (and possibly late 1940's) may bear a copyright symbol.
A special type of enamel developed by Dan Kasoff for Florenza jewelry resembled guilloche, though he branded it as "Cloisonnet".
Florenza did not produce a lot of rings, and when you find one, most of the time it is made from an identical element that was also used for a pin, earrings, or a link of a bracelet or necklace. Dan Kasoff's son Larry said that rings were many times produced from elements leftover after production of the other types of pieces. In other words, they took the unneeded leftover elements and attached them to ring bases. These pieces were sold to distributors, but were not part of the regular line that was shown as samples by their sales people. Hence the reason why some rings are not often seen.
Florenza used hand-carved shell cameos for their jewelry designs. These were imported from Italy, and made Florenza jewelry of a higher quality than the glass and plastic cameos more typically used for costume designs. The pieces were sold with small tags imprinted “Genuine Cameo”.
Florenza almost exclusively used glass stones, rather than plastic. This added a high degree of quality and eye-appeal to Dan Kasoff’s designs.
Information provided by Mary Ann Docktor-Smith, and may not be reproduced or used in any manner without her written permission. Copyright 2015.
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