Text Box: 1941 molding and novelty companies are ordered to stop jewelry production and retool for wartime manufacture of airplane and radio parts; postwar production of bakelite does not resume because of machinery retooling and labor retraining costs; metals are more  readily available and jewelry styles have changed 1985 fashion magazines highlight retro jewelry and bakelite is rediscovered 1988 Andy Warhol's bakelite sells for record prices at Sotheby's New York 1998 February 15, first specialty auction of bakelite at Treadway/Toomey in Chicago where "Philadelphia" bracelet sells for a record $9,350U.S. Text Box: 1907 July 13, Belgium-born chemist Dr. Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1836-1944) patents oxybenzylmethyleneglycolanhydride, unwittingly discovered in a makeshift laboratory in the back yard of his Yonkers, New York, home while trying to create a fire-resistant synthetic shellac; he names it "bakelite”. Bakelite was made by mixing Carbolic Acid with Formaldehyde and is considered the first electrically resistant, chemically stable, heat-resistant, shatter-proof plastic.  1910 establishes the General Bakelite Company with the first plant in Perth Amboy, New Jersey 1920s bakelite jewelry is produced and remains popular until the 1940s 1922 General Bakelite merges with two compet Text Box: ing companies to become the Bakelite Corporation. 1924 September, Baekeland is featured in the cover of Time magazine 1929 all Baekeland's factories are cramped for space; a 125-acre site is purchased in Bound Brook, New Jersey 1930 when Coco Chanel includes bakelite bracelets and dress clips in her accessories collection, they are transformed into haute couture classics 1932 a state-of-the-art plant is built in Bound Brook; bakelite jewelry is sold in stores from Woolworth's to Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue   Text Box:            Bakelite Jewelry Timeline                                   Text Box: Joyas Y Más Text Box: July - August  2006 Text Box: Volume 1, Issue 1 Text Box: Bakelite Tips Genuine bakelite will:     - smell like formaldehyde when rubbed vigorously     - have no seams and be much heavier than other plastics     - come in rich, mostly autumn, colors     - change color when exposed to strong sunlight over a long period of time (white becomes creamy yellow, pink becomes orange, and blue or purple become dark muddy blue-brown)     - be impossible to pierce with a heated pin   Text Box: Bakelite

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