Jewellery
Jewellery (British English) or jewelry (American English) consists of small decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western perspective, the term is restricted to durable ornaments, excluding flowers for example. For many centuries metal, often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewellery, but other materials such as shells and other plant materials may be used. It is one of the oldest type of archaeological artefact – with 100,000-year-old beads made from "Nassarius" shells thought to be the oldest known jewellery. The basic forms of jewellery vary between cultures but are often extremely long-lived; in European cultures the most common forms of jewellery listed above have persisted since ancient times, while other forms such as adornments for the nose or ankle, important in other cultures, are much less common.
Léa Stein
The brooches were made in two periods: vintage (1969 to 1981) and modern (1991 —). Each brooch has a distinctive v-shaped metal clasp inscribed with 'Lea Stein Paris'. Some collectors suggest that the clasp determines which era it was made in. Vintage brooches had the clasps heat mounted into the plastic; in modern brooches, the clasps are riveted on. Some early brooches had v-shaped clasps without the 'Lea Stein' inscription. However, other collectors suggest this is not true. The only way to discern vintage from modern is to have an extensive knowledge of Stein's designs.