wow -- I found a crazy thing today for $1

[grasswire]

It's a weird one.

Someone some years ago took an old and heavy loaf baking pan, covered it with some kind of substance, and then stuck dozens of pieces of jewelry into the substance. Then they put some decorative feet on the bottom side.

Well.

The items stuck into that hard substance are interesting. Silver-turquoise earrings. A college class pin (gold) from 1945. A gold decorative large pin in the shape of a cuckoo clock with dangling pearls and some kind of faceted stones. Brooches. Many, many earrings and baubles some of which are gold, some silver, some with coral, some with bakelite components.

Oh lordy.

Was this some kind of popular craft?

And what kind of substance might this be? It's kind of putty colored, very hard. It was pressed around the pan sides, and onto the bottom exterior. The interior of the pan was flat black originally, and remains so.

I also, incidentally, picked up a few other things.

Two really cool pie crimpers with green wooden handles; two very different styles from different manufacturers.

A ceramic planter that looks like a piece of driftwood, marked Ideal Calif.

A green swan with the original label Hollywood Ware.

[yy4me]

1. Nice chipping job ahead of you. Get your ice pick and thin

chisel handy. Think of what might appear from this.

Once years ago I worked for a precious metals refiner(another store here, I quit) and we frequently received odd shaped mounds with gold jewelry frozen into it with cement or other compound. The reason jewelers did that was to prevent the refiner's personnel from pocketing some gold goody from the pile. Everything went into the furnace.

If your material is hard, other than chipping away at it, anything else would ruin the embedded goodies. I would consider this a fun project. Beats TV and you may end up unearthing something of real value.
A drill on the areas with no jewelry might be a way to get at the good stuff. We have a grinding bit on the Dremel tool that would chew up the cement. I'd try that, keeping away from the good stuff. Then the chisel and pick. Sort of like mining for gems. Chip away at the rock.

[Vinca]

2. If you could post a photo, I'd love to see this one!

Are you going to keep it intact or chisel it apart for the gold? I've seen old boxes covered in seashells and a few pieces of modern sculpture covered with jewelry and stuff, but never a loaf pan. Weird stuff is so much fun.

[grasswire]

3. I can't decide whether to break it up or not!

On the one hand, I want to see how many pieces have karat marks. On the other hand, it makes me laugh to look at it.

I'll try to get a pic up.

[veness]

4. Congratulations on a dollar well spent!

The joy alone it has given you has already made it worth much more! Thanks for the fun story.

[Lars39]

5. I remember seeing a small table size christmas tree made out of jewelry

about 40 years ago. No greenery, just jewelry. I thought it was the prettiest thing I had ever seen. :)

[grasswire]

6. tried to post a pic

didn't work

[grasswire]

7. I pulled my listing of this item from ebay

I found the cuckoo clock item on a web site and it's worth 215 bucks. It's a fur clip, not a brooch.



Anyone know what "navette rhinestones" are?

[Vinca]

8. Wow! I love when that happens. I think navette is a shape of stone.

Or, rather, a cut of stone. Possibly like a tear drop, but I'm not sure. I'll check one of my jewelry books later and if it has anything I'll let you know.