Eisenberg

How to read it

Eisenberg & Sons made dresses first and jewelry from the 1930s; Pamela Wiggins Siegel, in Antique Trader, writes that it gave up clothing in 1958 to concentrate on jewelry. Eisenberg did not make its own jewelry: Costume Jewelry Collectors Int’l gives Ralph Singer Co. of Chicago as the first maker and Fallon & Kappel of New York as the only maker from about 1940 until it closed in 1972. Ice was the gangsters’ word for diamonds in the 1920s, says Karl Eisenberg, who ran the company from the 1960s after his father Sam and grandfather Jonas. The US registration for EISENBERG ICE filed by Eisenberg Jewelry, Inc. of Chicago claims first use on 1 February 1942; a later one, held by Karl S. Eisenberg, was cancelled in December 2022.

Also searched as: eisenberg ice, eisenberg jewelry, eisenberg mark, eisenberg original.

Dating the marks: the family and the collectors

Karl Eisenberg told Collectors Weekly the mark was Eisenberg Originals from 1935 to about 1945, the letter E in block letters from about 1942 to 1945, Eisenberg Ice in capitals from 1945 to 1950, and Eisenberg Ice in script from 1970. Costume Jewelry Collectors Int’l agrees on Eisenberg Original from about 1935 to 1945 and the block E from about 1942 to 1945, gives Eisenberg in block letters with the © after 1955, notes that from 1958 to 1970 many pieces were not marked, and gives Eisenberg Ice in block letters with the © from 1970. Script Eisenberg Ice with a date beneath it was used for the reissued Classic Series in 1994 and 2000.

When Ice went on the jewelry

Karl Eisenberg dates Eisenberg Ice to 1935. Siegel writes that the company called its jewelry ice in advertising for the early Eisenberg Original pieces, but that pieces were not marked Eisenberg Ice until much later; the trademark registration claims first use in 1942.

Sterling Eisenberg

Wartime pieces were made in sterling silver, from 1940 to 1945 in Karl Eisenberg’s account and from 1943 to early 1948 in the collectors’ index.

The stolen-brooch story

Karl Eisenberg tells how women trying on Eisenberg dresses in the North Room of the Carson Pirie Scott store in Chicago left the dresses and stole the pins, and how the store’s chairman suggested a costume jewelry line. Siegel calls the story largely a myth, according to jewelry historians, and puts the jewelry down to plain commercial success.

Eisenberg and Weiss

Karl Eisenberg named Albert Weiss as Eisenberg’s biggest competitor, one that copied its designs, a level below it in price.