GEMS FROM H

HAGLER, STANLEY Stanley Hagler was a jewelry designer whose pieces were opulent, complex, hand-wired, and usually colorful. Hagler produced pieces from 1953 until 1996. He produced pieces for Lord & Taylor, Bergdorf Goodman, and Saks Fifth Avenue. After Stanley Hagler's death in 1996, jewelry continued to be produced under the name Stanley Hagler & Company. Hagler's ex-employee, Ian St Gielar, produces pieces using the Stanley Hagler name.

HOBE Hobe Cie is a costume jewelry company that was founded by William Hobé in New York in the 1930's. William Hobe had immigrated to the US from France, where his family had made fine jewelry for generations. Hobe jewelry was used in showgirl costumes in the Ziegfeld Follies (Hobe supplied many of the costumes themselves - this was his original business in the US). Florence Ziegfeld (who founded the Ziegfeld Follies) was probably the first person to use the term "costume jewelry." Hobe jewelry was used in many Hollywood movies. Hobe produced very high quality (and very high priced) jewelry for upscale stores, often using semi-precious stones (like turquoise, lapis lazuli, jade, and agate). In the 1940's, the Hobe slogan was "Jewels of legendary splendor." The Hobe company is still producing costume jewelry.
HOWLITE
Howlite is a soft, white to gray mineral that takes dye very easily, and can be dyed to imitate turquoise very well (and is sometimes unscrupulously sold as turquoise). Howlite was named for its discoverer, Henry How, a Nova Scotia geologist.