Unique finishing touch! Vintage cufflinks tie clip rare and unique tag "I buy go for you" by Swank AAH8

Description: these very cool - not to mention completely unique - cufflinks represent the creativity of Swank. Each cufflink and the matching "shorty" tie clip represent a car tag, with the tag number "IGO4U", complete with red rhinestone 'reflector'. The shorty clip is perfect for skinny ties.
Date:

Item Type ((see shop home page: www.etsy.com/sg-en/shop/vintagemenswag for definitions) : cufflinks

Frame type (Cufflinks): (see shop home page: www.etsy.com/shop/vintagemenswag for definitions) : toggle, thick shaft.

Metal: alloy, plated

Metal Color: silver

Brand: Swank, Inc.

The “King” of brands in the vintage men's costume jewelry game, Swank has a long history as well as high name recognition. The company began as Attleboro Manufacturing Company in Attleboro, MA in 1897, by Samuel Stone and Maurice Baer, making women's jewelry. Men's jewelry was added in 1908, and during World War I the company produced dog tags in support of the war effort. Swank's first line of men's cufflinks were a unique design called “Kum-a-Part” (sometimes marked as Baer and Wilde Company), and are a strong collectable today. More cufflink styles were added in the 1920s as the wearing of cufflinks returned to popularity, and in that decade, the name “Swank” was first used in advertising. The company itself became “Swank Products Inc” in 1938 and in 1941 the name was simplified again to “Swank Inc.” In the 1950s the men's accessory market exploded and would grow continually into the 1960s, with Swank riding the wave of popularity. Leather goods and other men's accessories were added in that decade as well. In the 1960s, during the height of popularity of cufflinks and tie accessories, the company produced over 12 million pairs a year, at an average cost of around $2.50 a pair. In 1967 Swank introduced the chain-back tacks, probably based on a recent patent they obtained. They called them “Action Chain”.  The popularity of the brand was driven by the high number of unique styles produced, from very traditional to very artistic and modern. Swank men's pendants and chains, as well as other items, are also moderately common on the market. That variety continues to drive the demand for vintage Swank pieces in the collectables market today. The company name changed several times. It became Swank Products, Inc in 1938, then just Swank, Inc. in 1941. Swank seemed to have a name for everything in the mid-1950s, including a jewelry box for sets which they called “Florentine Golden Embossed Gift Box”, which was black imitation leather with a gold grid with shields and things inside the squares of the grids. Old ads are typically used to identify items from ‘collections', although the “Grand Prix”, “Arts of the World”, “Collezione Contintale”, “Royal Copenhagen” and other collections are also found in original boxes with the box bearing the collection name. If other cufflinks have not been put into the boxes for those collections can also identify what cufflinks or accessory sets belong to a ‘collection'. Also, cufflinks which are identified in certain collections based on advertising are also found in variations of the illustrated examples. Those variations can be in metal color, paint color, color of rhinestones or other stones used, or a change to a major component of the design. The brand is now a division of R..A. Randa, who also owns tie manufacturer Wembley.

Stone or applied decoration: red manmade stones

CONDITION: Excellent: The item and or piece of jewelry has evidence of wear.

REMEMBER: You are buying a vintage item. Even buy for items I indicate are in ‘perfect/mint/new/Mint in box, there still may be some minor scratches or other issues when the item is examined very closely. Most items in my shop are 40 to 60 years old, with many even older. They will have some ‘acquired character'. Also, even if I indicate the original box is present, the condition of that box may not be very good, particularly the exterior.

PHOTOS: I try to get sufficient pictures, of good quality, that allow you to see the details, construction, condition, and color of the items I list. However, with gold tone and silver tone items, by their very nature, it is difficult to capture the ‘exact shade' of their color. Compounding that issue is the difficulty of photographing certain rhinestones and crystals. Many will flash a variety of colors or have a luminesce that is hard to capture.  In those cases, I try to indicate that in my description.