Coro Alice Heart Charm

A newly discovered Coro piece is this Alice Heart charm, most likely from a pendant necklace.  It is a manufactured piece and not something altered after the fact as can be seen by its construction.  While the CMD only lists a few items, there have been several items discovered that aren't a part of that page.  I would love to find a Coro catalog to see if there are any other items yet to be discovered.

English Sterling Silver Pin - Mad Hatter

A recent discovery, what appears to be another pin from the same English maker of the Alice pin I posted about here.

Similar in size to the Alice, this Mad Hatter is 1 5/8 inches tall and is equally well rendered as the Alice.

Similar markings on the back as with the Alice, the name (Mad Hatter) and the hallmark (Ster Silv) and © WDP.  I would love to know how many characters they made, and who the maker was.

Happy New Year! Newly Discovered Coro Plastic Pin of March Hare

A very Happy New Year to all my readers. Today's post is of a newly discovered piece of Coro plastic jewelry, the March Hare pin. I did a series of posts back in October on the Coro jewelry and noted there were a few missing numbers in the Character Merchandise catalog, this could very well be one of those missing numbers!

As with the other plastic pieces, there are no identifying marks, but the material, construction and clasp match those of the known pins, so I'm fairly certain this is indeed a Coro piece.

Tweedle Metal Pin - Unknown Maker

When I got this pin, I thought it might be from the same series as this Alice pin. But, there are no maker's marks on the back, it is not sterling but some sort of pot metal, and the quality is nowhere near that of the Alice pin. Still, it is a cool pin, and I love the fact that he has his little flag on his hat.

Coro White Rabbit with Watch Plastic Pin

At first glance this looks like the regular White Rabbit with watch pin, just with the chain broken off. But it isn't. There is no attachment on this pin for the chain, it is smooth and unblemished. Also, even though it is gold in color, this is very light, and the clasp on the back matches those of the Alice and Tweedle plastic pins. This could be the missing 8063. Who knows?

Coro Tweedle Plastic Pin

Although not listed in the CMD catalog, I'm quite certain this is also by Coro. The plastic Tweedle pin shares many of the same qualities as the plastic Alice pin. Perhaps this fills the hole in the numbering and is item #8068. The world may never know...

Coro Alice Plastic Pin - Item #8069

In addition to the wide variety of metal costume jewelry, Coro also made pieces in plastic. Of course I didn't know that until I got my copy of the Character Merchandise Catalog.

These plastic pieces are really, really hard to find. Plastic from the 1950s was exceptionally flimsy, hard to believe any of these survived at all. This is the only example of any of the Alice jewelry that I've found on the original card.

And that brings us to the end of the pieces as described in the CMD catalog. But there's more to come...

Coro Tweedle Pin - Item #8067

The last of the pin pairs features a nameless Tweedle (pick your favorite).

Coro White Rabbit Pin - Item #8066

Second of the pin pairs features this White Rabbit pin, much smaller than his watch toting cousin. This pin is probably the rarest of the pins, at least in my experience.

Coro King of Hearts Pin - Item #8065

The first of the pin pairs features Alice and this little guy, the King of Hearts. I've always had a special place in my heart for this guy, he was my mascot at my wedding, and I wore this very pin on my lapel.

This pin is very tiny, and the most fragile of the pins, his heart scepter has a tendency to break off.

Ah, so much hair, so few chins (to quote Alton Brown).

Coro Alice Pin - Items #8065, 8066, 8067

This Alice pin was apparently part of several pairs of pins according to the Character Merchandise Catalog.

Alice was paired with the King of Hearts, White Rabbit and a Tweedle. Could she also have been paired with a Mad Hatter?




This also marks my 300th post, go me!

Coro White Rabbit with Watch Pin - Item #8064

The White Rabbit with watch pin is the only (metal) item from this line that is unique, meaning it does not appear as part of the necklace or bracelet.

It is much larger than all the other pins at about 1 1/2 inches. It does have a smaller cousin however...

Coro Alice Heart Pin - Item #8062

The Alice Heart pin, item 8062, was the very first item I found from this line. At the time, I did not know whether or not it was truly a Disney item, it seemed a little odd with the heart. It wasn't until I found a regular Alice pin that I realized it was truly from the same set.

The Alice figure on this pin is the same as on the necklace, bracelet, and standard pin, with the added heart device.

Coro Alice in Wonderland Character Bracelet - Item #8061

Next is item 8061, the bracelet. Essentially the same as the necklace in yesterday's post, just on a shorter chain.

Coro Alice in Wonderland Character Necklace - Item #8060

First in the jewelry line is item 8060, the necklace. It consists of 5 character charms: Alice, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, the King of Hearts and a Tweedle.

Note that the Mad Hatter character is the only charm on this necklace that does not have a corresponding pin (see yesterday's post). It is possible that a Mad Hatter / Alice set could fill the missing number (8063 or 8068).

Also note that these charms - and their corresponding pins - are tiny, between 3/4 and 7/8 of an inch.

Eastern Jewelry Mfg. Co. (aka Coro) - A Page from the Character Merchandise Catalog

The Eastern Jewelry Manufacturing Company - also known as Coro - produced a wide range of costume jewelry for the original release of Alice in Wonderland. Pictured below is the page from the Character Merchandise Catalog for that line.

It pictures a total of 9 different items, some of which appear to have been sold in pairs as the pins pictured along the right side of the page share inventory numbers - all pairs included an Alice and another character.

There are some holes in the numbering, one can speculate about the missing items - and for certain I have an item not listed on this page that could very well fill one of those holes. Stay tuned over the next few days for more details on this line of jewelry.

English Sterling Silver Pin - Alice

I recently acquired this from England. It is a sterling silver pin of Alice. Although she is only a scant 1½ inches tall, she is incredibly detailed; you can see the texture of her hair!

Style, pose, and craftsmanship of this pin put her in the 1950s I would imagine, but I don't know who made it. It is the nicest vintage Alice pin I have ever seen.

Disneyland Charm Bracelet

In honor of Disneyland's anniversary this week, I'll be posting Disneyland-related items. First up is a new category for the blog (courtesy of my lovely wife Wendy) - jewelry.

This is a charm bracelet as sold at Disneyland. It used to have its original blue price tag on the back, but at some point it fell off. Still has its original plastic sleeve though.

I've always pondered the charms on this bracelet. Clearly the White Rabbit is a stock charm, and the Dormouse is a Mickey with slightly stretched ears (that must have hurt!), but they created new charms for Mad Hatter, March Hare and Alice. Why go to the trouble to make new charms for only three? This is even more odd when you consider that during the film's original release in 1951 there was a charm bracelet available that had character-correct charms for the White Rabbit, King of Hearts and Tweedle. Why not use those? The world may never know...