Family Treasures - Edition 5
May 2004

If you have a French compact from the 20s, it could be worth £30. A British Yardley’s compact could fetch £25, especially if the original puff is still  there and not too grotty. 

Magical combinations

Bigger ‘vanities’ from the 30s had compartments for lipstick and (very chic) cigarette holders - if yours is still all in one piece you’re looking at upwards of £100.

And a silver or gold hallmark, especially if combined with enamelled decoration, should have you rushing for a proper jeweller’s valuation - check, though,  whether any coloured decoration is really enamel rather than simply lacquer: enamel looks glassy and is heavier, more easily chipped.  An enamelled compact from the 20s could reach £550. A lacquered one of the same age, maybe £50.

End of an era  (and in with the new)

Production stopped in WW2, then boomed again in the 50s, by then more likely to contain pressed or ‘cream’ powder rather than the looser stuff. Plastics came into their own and collectors prefer the earliest ones, where hinges were still metal and the plastic moulding a bit uneven: £180 is a fair price.

From the 50s on, virtually every jewellery maker and fashion house got in on the act. A silver compact by Danish silversmith Georg Jensen fetched £100 at Sotheby’s a few years ago and would be more today.

In Britain, Stratton became the big post-war brand, but they made so many that values haven’t peaked (yet). A simple Stratton might be £20, although a ‘special’ merits more: a 1977 Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee commemorative could fetch £55, an early 60s Beatles £125. 

Maybe a girl doesn’t  ‘go to powder her nose’ any more, but if she goes to an internet website (eg eBay) she’ll see a hundred compacts up for sale, priced in dollars as well as sterling: Americans just love to collect them. 

The above article is part of the features section of laterlife.com called laterlife interest. laterlife interest contains a variety of articles of interest for visitors to laterlife.com written by a number of experienced and new journalists.

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