All About Plastic Jewelry

Plastics have been used in jewelry since 1868 with the peak years being the 1930s.

PYROXYLIN - Celluloid, French Ivory, Vegetable Ivory

Earliest form of synthetic plastic invented in 1868 by John Wesley Hyatt who was searching for a way to make billiard balls out of simulated ivory. It is highly flammable and tends to turn yellow with age. It was often produced in an ivoroid form as well as an iridescent "mother-of-pearl laminate.

Celluloid was the brand name for products made by The Celluloid Corporation of New York. (Other brands included Nixonoid, Xylonite and Nacara.)

Pyroxylin plastics are light in weight and become soft when heated. Celluloid products were not made after World War II.

CELLULOSE ACETATE - Similoid, Tenite

Cellulose acetate was produced during the attempt to produce a product similar to Pyroxylin without the flammability. It was most often used for knobs and handles in cars of the 1930s and 40s. It tends to crackle with age and exposure. It was expensive to manufacture and had a limited use in jewelry. Always molded, never cast. Hard and slightly brittle. It does not have the "greasy" feel of phenolics.

CASEIN PLASTICS - Ameroid, Kyloid, Dorcasine, Casolith

Invented in 1904 and made from milk proteins. Because it warped when manufactured in large sizes, it was commercially available in smaller sizes. This limited its use to buttons and buckles. It had a glossy surface, wide range of color and was easily carved. It could not be molded. If your piece has laminated layers cut away in "cameo" form, it is casein.

PHENOL FORMALDEHYDE - Bakelite, Catalin, Marblette, Agatine, Gemstone, Durite, Prystal

Discovered by L.H. Baekeland in 1908. Two basic groupings of phenolic plastics - the cast and the molded. The molded types came first and used wood-flour filled plastics such as in early telephones.

Cast phenolic was used for jewelry. Two of the best known companies were the Bakelite Corp of New York and the American Catalin Corporation of New York. Bakelite and Catalin are heavy with a slightly "greasy" feel. Will not soften at heats under that of boiling water. About as hard as brass and can be worked with files, grinding tools and abrasive cutters. Buffs to a high polish.

Molded phenolics in jewelry originated around World War I. Cast phenolics originated around 1930 and were gone by 1945-50.

UREA FORMALDEHYDE - Beetleware, Plaskon, Duroware, Uralite

Early phenol formaldelydes were dark in color due to impurities and were usually dyed in a dark tone to mask this. Urea formaldelyde is naturally light in color and could be used in the pastel color range. Its disadvantage is that it was light in weight, brittle, shiny rather than glossy and not very strong. Jewelry made of urea is not as collectible and does not have the value of jewelry made from phenol.

VINTAGE JEWELRY AND VINTAGE COMPACT INFORMATION

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