Lea Stein

          

You can’t walk past any Lea Stein pieces in a vintage market without having a second look, whether you are a collector of Lea Stein or not if your into vintage and retro you’ll love her striking bright patterns and her art deco style.

Any vintage jewellery collection would not be without a piece from Lea Stein, the French artist best known for her buttons, brooches and bracelets holds a significance in plastic jewellery design of the 20th century. Her jewellery is made from layering sheets of cellulose acetate, baked, cooled and cut into the designs with some having different fabrics inserted to give the plastic visual texture and colour.

Lea Stein is still designing although anything modern is almost impossible to find, avid collectors snap them up before they hit the open market. But the most common designs made between 1965 to 1981 are readily available and can be generally found at any good vintage market or online.

Some of these photos are of various brooches that are available to buy online at Parisienne Pins and were available at the time of posting, sorry if they’ve been sold. 

Lea Stein Jewelry is a book written by Judith Just a collector of over 20 years, in this book you can find over 350 photos with captions that identify the pieces, dates and value ranges. Published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd.

Also good information and good read can be found at DecoGirl on vintage and niche jewellery including art deco, bakelite and Marie C Pavone pins.

Vintage & Retro loves Lea Stein!