Description: Vintage FMCo Finberg Manufacturing Company Ornate Silver Makeup Compact Case Purse Enamel Rose. It is actually white gold filled metal, not silver although color looks like silver. Measures about 2" x 3". One spot is marked FMCO and under the pad has the Finberg label. Beautiful guilloche enamel rose decoration front. Has an ornate clasp. One of the nicest compacts we have ever seen. Fine used condition, no damage noted and appears quite complete - see my detailed photos. The Finberg Manufacturing Company made vanity cases for just two decades during the 1920s and 1930s when vanity case production in America was at its most inventive. Despite its short life as a vanity case manufacturer it did leave legacy of some of the most decorative and collectible cases ever to have been produced in the Attleboro region.Finberg’s jewelry business was operated as a manufacturing jeweler making women’s lockets, bracelets and other novelties that were sold mainly through mail order companies. This makes it difficult to track and identify Finberg products because catalogs seldom identify manufacturers unless the manufacturer has made separate arrangements to advertise itself. Unlike the Marathon Company and The Evans Case Company who, often, both took out advertisements under their own names, Finberg made no such arrangements. But, happily for collectors, Finberg jewelry items are almost always marked with the letters FMCO, or F.M.Co or even Finberg Mfg. Co.Finberg’s entry into vanity case manufacturing seems to have been quite late. From as early as 1908 Finberg would have seen the Attleboro silversmiths making the large, oblong, vanity boxes that held powder, coin holders, a mirror etc. He would also have seen other manufacturers making cheaper versions from German silver but there is no evidence that The Finberg Manufacturing Company made these early containers nor is there any evidence that they started making dorines (an early name for what we call ’compacts’ today) for compact powder once this had started to become fashionable from about 1913.The Great Depression did not prevent Finberg from continuing to market vanity cases and by 1932 Finberg and his workforce of just 50 personnel was producing some outstanding examples of guilloche enamel cases in dazzling colours. Emerging at this time were cases fitted with a rigid handle and, just like the ball and shank cases closures of the 1920s, each manufacturer had its own particular handle design. Finberg’s had a protruding lobe at the top of the handle with scalloped edges.These heavily engine turned and enameled cases were made from solid, cast, brass and were very heavy. They were also very similar to cases produced by The Ripley & Gowan Company but the case shapes and other characteristics were different. There is no doubt that the case shells were made by the same manufacturer, however, and it was probably Ripley & Gowan. Indeed, the similarity between Finberg cases and those made by Ripley & Gowan also extended to the scallop-shaped loose powder covers that were also made by the same manufacturer. Finberg’s could be distinguished by the engine turning design in the form of a series of undulating waves. There is no question that Finberg’s cases were engine turned and enameled within the factory at 140 Park Street and it may also be possible that the Ripley & Gowan cases were also enameled by Cooper, such was the interdependency between Attleboro manufacturers.
Price: 95 USD
Location: Weymouth, Massachusetts
End Time: 2023-09-20T01:30:01.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
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Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
