Featured Is this bird pin celluloid?

I’m posting 9 pieces/sets of jewelry today and will appreciate any and all information and opinions the jewelry experts wish to offer. I paid $1 for this unsigned bird pin, and am wondering if it’s celluloid or another type of early plastic. I found an identical pin online described as 1940s “plastic possibly celluloid,” and another in a different color described as celluloid. I know it’s not worth much, but am wondering if anyone can tell by looking at the photos if this is celluloid? It looks and feels different than other celluloid jewelry I have.

 

It's WWII era (clue is that only pin stem is metal). Hard to know with all that paint, but by this time there were other polymers available, not all of them in production today.

 

Thank you Bronwen, hadn't thought about the significance of only the pin stem being metal. The only other polymers I've heard/read about are bakelite, catalin, casein, lucite, acrylic but it seems those materials were in sheets, rods, blocks, etc., not molded into shapes.

 

The book Plastic Jewelry of the 20th Century by Lillian Baker has a lot of in-depth information on identification. I have a copy of the book, which discusses, for example, that in 1935 a "German patent was taken out for ornamentation of molded plastic articles." However, I don't know if the molds being referred to here were the sheets, rods, and blocks, or something more unusual. When you wrote "molded into shapes" I think you are referring to unusual shapes such as the front and back of the bird pins?

 

Thank you Figtree, I think I have the book you mentioned, but I'm away from home for several days, so will see if I do when I get back. Yes, I was referring to shapes like the bird pin. It looks like a soft material was put into a 2-piece mold and then the two halves pressed together because of the seam around the edges that show where material squeezed out and wasn't cleaned off completely. It's kind of hard to see in the last photo. I just checked with wikipedia about when injection molding was invented and learned that the guy who patented the process for making celluloid in 1868, also patented the first injection molding machine. It also mentioned that soluble forms of cellulose acetate that were much less flammable became available in the early 1900s, so now I'm thinking that's probably what the pin is.