About Trabert & Hoeffer Brand
American jewelers Trabert & Hoeffer established their first store in 1930s on Park Avenue in New York. It was the time when American clientele just started to get introduced to French jewelry designs. The company purchased inventory from the Parisian jeweler Mauboussin, which closed its New York location. Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin’s partnership began in 1936. Soon after the company’s jewels earned recognition among Hollywood stars, such as Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Paulette Godard.
In 1938, Hoeffer developed a line of jewelry called Reflection. The pieces were designed by Gustave Toth. The main idea behind it was to create a more affordable, but still in the high-end range, collection. The pieces were beautifully crafted from an assortment of pre-cast design elements. Due to advanced manufacturing techniques which kept costs low, Reflection kept being successful during difficult World War II time.
The line became the beginning of Trabert & Hoeffer’s innovative design. The company created plenty of convertible pieces that allowed a jewelry item to turn into a few different ones, giving the client multiple options to play with.
During the maker’s history, Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin stores opened in Atlantic City, Miami Beach, Palm Beach, and Chicago. Today only the Chicago store remains open. It carries the luxury spirit of an intimate, Art Deco style jewelry salon.
About Retro Jewelry
The Retro era in jewelry dated to the 1930-40s. These ten years brought us a distinct look that has been highly admired through the years.
During the World War II the entire world was changing, and jewelry world was under the influence as well. For instance, bracelets were often designed by using the geometry of tank treads. In order to confront that brutality, for some of the pieces jewelers reinstated Victorian floral motifs in a romantic and even fragile way. That approach resulted in a vast variety of brooches. Butterflies, flowers, starbursts, birds, and animals flooded jewelry market during retro era.
Some of the materials — such as platinum — were hard to find and even forbidden to be sold. That’s why retro jewelry was often made of yellow, rose and even green gold alloys.
Shortage of gemstones forced jewelers to use semi-precious stones: citrine, aquamarine, amethyst. Pave technique allowed to achieve a big look with little diamonds. Another sign of that time was enamel that was used to accentuate the stone or even replace it.
