Others maintain a less warm-and-fuzzy perspective. "People want to be close to Jackie," smiles Jack Wilkie. Bittersweet those images, gone those moments.īut why mourn for Camelot, when you can wear it? Own some of that collective unconscious, for only "5 equal monthly installments of $39 each." Never mind that what you actually have are glass and powdered seashells, hand-knotted, of course, and clasped with genuine silver, cast from the original, which itself was a 1950s reproduction of a 1930s jewelry finding. In another photo, young John-John tugs playfully at the pearls, inducing a head-thrown-back laugh from the bewitching First Lady. In one, Jackie lounges in the sun, her ripe, lovely face forever young and framed by Those Pearls. Those photographs and their residual romance grace the Mint Museum's newest display. Onassis and worn by her in several famously unforgettable photographs. The Resnicks, Stewart and Lynda-the dynamic duo who own, operate and oversee every inch of the Mint's busy empire-went to the trouble of forking over $211,500 at the hugely hyped Sotheby's auction for the original faux pearls owned by Mrs. I find myself mentally making a purchase. Not the least bit tacky, they look terrific. 'TRY THEM ON," urges Franklin Mint Vice President Jack Wilkie in the buttery tones of a man who has never heard the word "no." As the silver clasp is snapped into place, I feel the pleasurable weight of the three strands of pearls-just like the fake ones Jackie Kennedy Onassis really owned and really wore when she was married to the golden-haired god, Jack Kennedy. And to see if there really was no accounting for taste, I needed to go to the source.Įmbrace Your Inner Jackie: Franklin Mint Vice Chair Lynda Resnick wears the real thing-Jackie O's faux pearls- now available in mint reproduction at a price Camelot fantasizers can afford. My clipping file soon grew to include ads from Franklin Mint competitors, kitsch houses like Ashton-Drake Galleries, Christian Fantasy Collectibles, the Hamilton Collection, Danbury Mint, Bradford Exchange, the Georgetown Collection-groups whose bad taste rose like clouds of cheap perfume from the newsprint pages.įorced to consider that my fellow Americans were coughing up hard-earned money on figurines of little boys urinating, plates covered with fat angels and bad poetry, the die-cast replica cars and American eagle bone china by the Franklin Mint began to look downright tasteful. There, in porcelain, was Marilyn Monroe, dressed in her pink Lorelei Lee outfit from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and the crew of Star Trek ready to mount a Level Three diagnostic. Simultaneously fascinated and repelled, I found myself turning to the magazine newspaper inserts each Sunday to find out what new collectible version of the Hallmark moment would be pitched. In a heady gush of exclusivity, the ad teases "Limit: one plate per collector." The ad proudly italicizes the fact that the shamrock-shaped plate is "bordered in 24 karat gold," offered in a limited edition that "will be closed forever after 45 firing days." Which means that only 5,000 to 10,000 or so of these will be made. Betty Boop, pouting saucily in cast resin-"inspired by an authentic animation cel"-is mine for only $37.50.Īnother ad offers "the first-ever shamrock-shaped heirloom collector plate" depicting a cozy thatched cottage embellished by the tired Irish toast, "May the road rise to meet you-may the wind be at your back" in emerald-green lettering. ![]() The ads sell dreams, ephemeral snacks of nostalgia enshrined in hand-painted porcelain, yours for only three easy payments of $29.95-and, all over the world, collectors are happy to shell out $800 million a year, making the Franklin Mint not just a mega-producer of glossy bric-a-brac, but a wildly successful player in the corporate arenaĮVERY SUNDAY THEY APPEAR, those full-page, color ads for Victorian dolls, Santa figurines, plates commemorating something Babe Ruth did decades ago, Fabergé music boxes my grandmother would have killed for. Plate Techtonics: The Franklin Mint pumps out a steady stream of plateware that strives to capture America's most magical, unlived moments. Metroactive News & Issues | Franklin Mint
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