Miriam Haskell: The American Jeweller Who Made the World Fall in Love with Baroque Pearls

There is a moment in the history of American design when one woman — quietly, without fanfare, from a small shop on West 57th Street in Manhattan — changed the way the world thought about jewellery. That woman was Miriam Haskell. And what she built, between the 1920s and the 1960s, remains among the most coveted, most collected, and most passionately debated bodies of work in the entire history of costume jewellery.

She never advertised. She rarely gave interviews. She let the work speak — and it spoke loudly enough to reach the wrists and throats of the Duchess of Windsor, Joan Crawford, Lucille Ball, and eventually every serious vintage collector on earth.

From Indiana to West 57th Street

Miriam Haskell was born in 1899 in Tell City, Indiana, the daughter of a merchant. She studied at the University of Chicago before arriving in New York in the early 1920s — a young woman with an eye for beauty, an instinct for commerce, and no interest whatsoever in following anyone else’s rules.

In 1924, she opened a small gift shop in the McAlpin Hotel. It was there, surrounded by European antiques and decorative objects, that she began selling jewellery. Not the mass-produced costume pieces that dominated department stores, but something altogether different: handmade, intricate, deeply personal objects that felt less like accessories and more like wearable art.

Word spread quickly among the women who mattered.

The Haskell Technique: Handwired, Handbeaded, Irreplaceable

What separates Miriam Haskell jewellery from almost everything else in the costume category is the making. Each piece was constructed by hand — seed pearls and glass beads wired individually onto Russian gilt findings, layered, clustered, and arranged with a precision that no machine has ever replicated.

The signature elements are unmistakable to a trained eye:

• Baroque seed pearls — irregular, luminous, and applied in dense clusters that create an organic, almost botanical quality
• Russian gilt findings — the warm, slightly antiqued gold-tone metalwork that became synonymous with the Haskell aesthetic
• Handwired construction — each bead secured individually, meaning authentic vintage pieces have a weight and flexibility that reproductions cannot match
• Floral and nature motifs — Haskell returned again and again to flowers, leaves, berries, and vines, always interpreted with a softness and femininity that felt genuinely romantic rather than merely decorative

The result was jewellery that photographed like fine jewellery, felt like fine jewellery, and told a story that fine jewellery — uniform, anonymous, locked in a safe — simply could not.

The Duchess, the Stars, and the Collectors

Miriam Haskell’s client list reads like a cultural roll call of the mid-twentieth century. The Duchess of Windsor — one of the most photographed women in the world and arguably the greatest style icon of her era — was an ardent collector. Joan Crawford wore Haskell on and off screen. Lucille Ball was photographed in her pieces repeatedly.

The appeal was consistent across all of them: Haskell jewellery had presence. It could hold its own against a Balenciaga gown or a Mainbocher suit. It was grand without being ostentatious, romantic without being sentimental, and feminine without being fragile.

It was also, crucially, unlike anything else. In an era when costume jewellery was either clearly imitative of fine jewellery or obviously cheap, Haskell had carved out an entirely original category. Her pieces didn’t aspire to look like diamonds. They aspired to look like themselves.

Frank Hess: The Creative Force Behind the Name

Any honest account of Miriam Haskell must acknowledge Frank Hess, her chief designer from the late 1920s through 1960. Hess was a window dresser by training, an artist by temperament, and the creative engine behind much of what we now call the Haskell aesthetic.

Their collaboration was one of the great creative partnerships in American design history — Haskell providing the commercial instinct, the client relationships, and the vision; Hess translating that vision into the intricate, handwired masterpieces that made the house’s reputation.

When Haskell retired due to illness in 1953, Hess continued until 1960. The pieces from this era — particularly the elaborate floral parures and the multi-strand pearl pieces — are among the most technically accomplished in the entire archive.

Collecting Miriam Haskell: What to Look For

Haskell pieces are among the most rewarding to collect, and among the most frequently misrepresented. Key authentication points:

• Signatures: Early pieces (pre-1950) are often unsigned or signed with an oval cartouche reading Miriam Haskell. Later pieces carry a horseshoe-shaped signature. Unsigned early pieces are not less valuable — in fact, some of the finest early work predates consistent signing.
• Russian gilt findings: The metalwork should have a warm, slightly antiqued quality. Reproductions often use brighter, harder gold tones.
• Handwired construction: Turn the piece over. Authentic Haskell pieces show the handwired backing — individual wire wraps around each bead, secured to the finding. This is extraordinarily labour-intensive and impossible to fake convincingly at scale.
• Seed pearl quality: Haskell’s pearls have an irregular, organic lustre. Machine-applied pearls in reproductions are too uniform, too bright, and lack the depth of the originals.

The most collectible pieces are the elaborate floral parures from the 1940s and 1950s, the Versailles-inspired multi-strand pearl pieces, and any documented Frank Hess-era designs.

The Versailles Moment

Of all the aesthetic worlds Miriam Haskell explored, perhaps none suited her sensibility more perfectly than the Baroque grandeur of Versailles. Pearl clusters arranged like garden flowers. Gold findings that recalled the gilded halls of the Sun King. Layered strands that referenced the portrait jewels of the French court — interpreted through an American eye, made by American hands, worn by women who understood that history is the ultimate luxury.

Our Miriam Haskell Versailles Set — Pearl, Crystal & Gold Wreath Earrings with Double Strand Necklace distils exactly this sensibility. A complete parure — earrings and necklace — in the house’s most celebrated idiom. Documented, authenticated, and entirely without equal.

Why Haskell Appreciates

Miriam Haskell jewellery has shown remarkable resilience in the collector market. Unlike many costume jewellery houses, Haskell pieces have appreciated consistently over the past two decades — driven by a combination of scarcity (the handmade construction means no two pieces are identical), increasing scholarly attention, and a growing recognition that the best Haskell rivals the finest European costume jewellery in technical accomplishment.

At Christie’s and Sotheby’s, significant Haskell parures regularly achieve four figures. Documented Frank Hess-era pieces command premium prices. The trajectory is clear — and the window for acquiring exceptional pieces at collector rather than auction-house prices is narrowing.