Featured Sterling enamel butterfly

Hello all! I have had this cute little pin for awhile and can’t seem to find the maker. It’s about an inch, well made and marked Sterling silver Germany and MBe. Was hoping it was Murrle Bennett (the colors seem right) but alas no indication they ever had this mark. The catch also seems newer. Anyhoo your thoughts appreciated.

 

Lovely flutterby, Patty. It looks later than Murrle Bennett though, and as you rightly remarked, the clasp is newer. I don't know the mark, but others will be along soon.

 

Thank you for your insight. I believe the Murrle Bennett was wishful thinking on my part. Ah well, a girl can dream.

 

Is it possible the "GE" is gold electroplated and M is the maker?

 

It is silver, but maybe it looks gold on your screen?

 

Sweet piece - love the rotund body.

New York based 'Maison Behar' was importing jewelry from the early 1920s, but this trademark was registered in 1963, noting first use in 1962. Alice Caviness was importing some of the same designs in the same period - suspect finding the German jobber they used would be difficult...





~Cheryl

 

Thank you Cheryl. I’d have sworn this is older than 60’s but I guess not.

 

Haven't been around much lately, but just wanted to add a bit - while yours would not date earlier since Maison Behar claims first use of that trademark in 1962, pieces by the same manufacturer may date a bit earlier, but would think a few years past WWII at earliest...


Though finding the trademark info was simple, kind of surprised there's still no other info easily available online - I'd researched this mark years ago when selling a bee brooch, my notes still exist, but they're on an external hard-drive with salvaged files from my first laptop (shopping for my fourth now), and I apparently dropped the hard-drive in a storage box several years ago, and frustratingly can't find it (lots of good stuff on it, too). To the best of my recollection, I had a number of print ads from the 1920s to the '60s, as well as clips from trade publications - the later retailer ads mentioned 'Maison Behar' as provider of similar enameled brooches pictured.

Morning Glory's site shows pages from a circa 1965 Caviness catalog including two pages of the enamel brooches (unfortunately, no butterfly like yours) - some of same pieces in the catalog, as well as some similar, are also found with other marks, or without any importer's mark at all. The Fifth Avenue addresses of Maison Behar and Alice Caviness were quite close to each other, not difficult to imagine the wholesale rep visiting both, as well as other firms Look near the bottom of this page for those two catalog page images:
https://www.morninggloryjewelry.com/articles/vintage-jewelry-ads/caviness-catalogue/


This is the bee brooch that I had, shown in the catalog (sorry, poor enlargement):




This one is marked 'ALICE CAVINESS':

https://www.etsy.com/listing/766975...f=sr_gallery-1-4&organic_search_click=1&frs=1



This one is marked 'M-BE':

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-insect-pin-sterling-enamel-429448609



This one is only marked 'GERMANY':

https://www.rubylane.com/item/1311637-3324/Sterling-Silver-Guilloche-Enameled-Bee-Brooch



~Cheryl