My late Mum always wore a brooch in her coat. They were costume jewellery not real gold and back in the 60`s lots of women wore them and Mum swapped them around regularly. I`ve no idea what happened to them. She died in 1987 and the only brooch she had in her jewellery box was a cameo brooch which I now own. I`m wondering if she gave them away during the 70`s and 80`s when they became unpopular. She also had quite a few pairs of clip on earrings, also costume jewellery and they were missing too. She never had her ears pierced.
I know one of her friends was a big fan of costume jewellery and you never saw her without the full monty of earrings, necklace, bracelet and rings so perhaps Mum gave them to her. Like someone said in an earlier post, it`s amazing what some vintage costume jewellery sells for, not that I would ever sell anything my Mum owned.
She didn`t have masses of the real mccoy, ie gold, gemstone or diamond but the few items she did own were good quality and nicely made. I have a ruby and diamond cluster ring my Dad bought her for their ruby wedding anniversary, a string of pearls which were actually broken and I almost gave them away but recently discovered they are Mikimoto and worth quite a lot of money and I had them restrung and a new clasp on them, a gold link bracelet which is very heavy and was made from part of my Grandad`s Royal Albert watch chain and a large cameo brooch set in gold. My late sister got her large gold locket, her wedding ring and her gold watch. My Dad gave her engagement ring to my sister in law and he later regretted it when my brother`s marriage broke down and my sister in law became estranged from the family. When Mum and Dad first got together she never had an engagement ring, it was wartime and my Dad bought her a 3 stone diamond ring on their Silver wedding anniversary and was sad when it left the family so to speak.