The history of the Little Nemo jewelry company (USA, 1913 -1978)
Little Nemo was founded in 1913 and is located in Providence, Pennsylvania. The founders of the company are Benjamin Brier and Sam Magid. It is known that the name was chosen in honor of the popular character from the comics of those years.
A comic strip titled “Little Nemo in Slumberland” was published in the New York Herald and the New York American between 1905 and 1926. The author of the comics was a talented cartoonist, an innovator in the field of animation and animation – Winsor McCay. Little Nemo was based on the story of his son Robert, and was about the adventures of a little boy.
Americans adored this story and it enjoyed great fame among contemporaries. Therefore, this name of the company is not at all accidental and served as an excellent start and further success.
In the 1920-50s, Little Nemo was a very successful company and was second only to Sogo in terms of production and popularity. It is also worth noting that Little Nemo made custom jewelry for Helena Rubenstein, Revlon and Walt Disney.
Unfortunately, in the 1970s, Brière ended up filing for bankruptcy as well.
Stylistic features and distinctive features
Basically, when creating jewelry, the so-called Pot metal, Austrian crystals of the highest quality, hand-painted enamel, artificial pearls, high quality plastic (celluloid, bakelite, lucite) were used.
The design of Little Nemo jewelry has changed over time, but the most famous line of jewelry in the so-called Czech style. Such jewelry is distinguished by the abundance of multi-colored crystals and the similarity of design with Czech costume jewelry of the 1890-1920s.
Often, vintage and antique Little Nemo jewelry is quite impressive in size and looks bulky at first glance, but as soon as it is put on outerwear, it becomes more than appropriate. Little Nemo jewelry has its own special zest – it is quite easy to distinguish them from jewelry from other brands.
Little Nemo Antique Jewelry Labeling
Most Little Nemo jewelry is unfortunately unmarked, as it was sold with signed paper tags. And of course they didn’t survive. Sometimes this really makes it very difficult to attribute the jewelry of this brand. Known markings: “LN”, “L/N 25”, “L/N 50”, “Little Nemo” inside a circle, “Nemo Gold Seal Quality LN/25”, “L/N”, “LN” inside a flattened diamond , “Venus” in 1958, “NEMO” in block letters from the 1955s.
