Napier

How to read it

The current NAPIER registration for fashion jewelry, held by Premier Brands IP LLC of New York, claims first use on 26 June 1922, the date Costume Jewelry Collectors Int’l gives for Napier in block letters. Costume Jewelry Collectors Int’l dates the company from 1878 to 15 October 1999, and Collectors Weekly reports that Jones New York bought the name in 2000. James H. Napier, president from 1920 to 1960, refused to call his products costume jewelry, according to Melinda Lewis, co-author of the company history The Napier Co.

Also searched as: napier jewelry, napier jewelry marks, napier mark.

Bliss, Napier in a cartouche, and block letters

Costume Jewelry Collectors Int’l lists BLISS from 1915, Napier inside a cartouche from 1920, and Napier in block print from June 1922, used throughout the company’s history with and without the ©. The © follows the name after 1955; a script Napier in the Mistral typeface dates from 1965, and a script Napier without the © from the early 1990s. Siegel dates Bliss-marked jewelry to 1919 and 1920.

Why block letters are hard to date

Pamela Wiggins Siegel, in Antique Trader, writes that the block-letter Napier of the 1920s was used, with only small differences, decades later, and that Napier pieces without the © were made both before and after 1955, the year many jewelry makers took up the copyright symbol. Some 1920s pieces are marked Napier Sterling.

1875 or 1878?

Many accounts start the firm as Whitney and Rice in 1875. Lewis found no one named Whitney or Rice in the 1870s directories and incorporation papers; Egerton Ames Bliss started his silver novelties company in 1878. She found an internal document of 1929 with 1878 crossed out and 1875 pencilled in, and from the 1930s the company gave 1875 as its start date. Costume Jewelry Collectors Int’l now gives 1878.

When Napier came to Meriden

The accounts differ. Collectors Weekly says the plant operated in Meriden from 1890; Siegel says the company bought property including a factory there in 1928.