Monet

How to read it

Monocraft began with monograms: for car doors first, then metal monograms for purses. Pamela Wiggins Siegel, in Antique Trader, describes its 1930s initial jewelry, Click-Its and Dangles, as marked Monocraft in block letters, and the launch of Monet Jewelers in 1937 with a full-page advertisement in the October 1937 Vogue. The MONET registration for jewelry claims first use on 1 September 1937. It was registered by General Mills Products Corp. and is now owned by Penney IP LLC of Plano, Texas.

Also searched as: monet jewelry, monet jewelry marks, monet stamp on jewelry, monocraft.

How the Monet mark changed

Siegel dates Monet’s marks this way: Monet Jewelers on small metal hang tags on necklaces and bracelets from 1937 to the mid-1940s; Monét, with an accent on the e, in a serif typeface on brooches and dress clips of the same period; and MONET, without the accent, on later jewelry. Costume Jewelry Collectors Int’l adds Monet with the © after 1955, and gives the pronunciation Mo-nay.

Who founded it

Every account names two Chernow brothers in 1927 and gives the first as Michael. The second is Joseph in Alice Vega’s account to Collectors Weekly, Joseff in Siegel’s and Jay in the collectors’ index.

Designers and the war

Vega names Edmond Mario Granville, a former fine jewelry designer at Cartier, as Monet’s designer from 1934. During the Second World War much of the Providence factory went over to making ammunition and torpedoes.

Owners

Costume Jewelry Collectors Int’l lists the owners: General Mills from 1968, Crystal Brands from 1989 to 1994, then Chase Capital Partners and Lattice Holding as the Monet Group until Liz Claiborne bought it in July 2000. The trade paper just-style reported the Liz Claiborne purchase, with the Monet Group’s brands then including Monet, Trifari and Marvella.