Florenza, Har, Hattie Carnegie

Florenza is one of those costume jewelry companies which needs more research on origins and history. Started in the late 1930’s by Dan Kasoff and operating under that name, the firm only became known as Florenza in the early 1950’s. Using unusual stones and imaginative castings the jewels were a real product of their age. If little is known about Florenza, even less is known about Har. Popular thinking attributes the name to a company which only operated in the mid 1950’s possibly for only one or two years. The Har mark appears to have been superseded by that of ‘Art’ and it is generally assumed that either the company was sold or renamed in the 1950’s. The Hattie Carnegie dress company was founded in 1918 and jewelry was designed and manufactured to compliment lines of clothing. Most famous for diamante pins and necklaces ‘en tremblant’ and a wonderful range of combination plastic and metal animals in naïve forms.