{"product_id":"vintage-hickok-cherry-red-cabochon-cufflinks-pair-c-1945-1960","title":"Vintage Hickok Cherry Red Cabochon Cufflinks, Pair, c. 1945–1960","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA pair of gold-tone cufflinks set with deep cherry-red domed cabochons, by Hickok of Rochester, New York. The colour is the whole point: dark garnet in shadow, and lit from the side it goes clear and glowing like a cough drop held to a window.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach cabochon sits in a plain polished bezel with a narrow rolled lip, mounted on a stepped disc that steps down again to a reeded stem. The stem carries three crisp parallel flutes running its length, and it hinges into a rounded toggle bar with matching reeding along the top. It is a streamlined design with no ornament that is not also structure, which is why it still looks modern.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFine bubbles are suspended through the red, visible when the light goes through it, which is what you get from a poured or cast material rather than a cut stone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth links are stamped HICKOK U.S.A. in small block capitals on the inner face of the toggle bar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHickok was a Rochester, New York maker of men's accessories. Stephen Rae Hickok started the business in 1909 and incorporated it in May 1917, working first out of the Cox Building on St. Paul, then North Water Street, and from 1924 the old M. B. Schantz factory at Monroe and Rutgers. It made buckles, cufflinks and tie clips, and later wallets, belts and suspenders, with branches in New York, Chicago and Toronto.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo dates matter for a pair like this. In 1934 the designer Edwin N. Vogel joined the firm and pushed it into properly designed men's jewellery rather than plain findings, which is where a piece with this much attention to the stem and the toggle comes from. And in 1950 Hickok created the Hickok Belt, the alligator and solid gold trophy given annually to the Professional Athlete of the Year until 1976, which put the name in every sports page in the country and made it a mark men recognised.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe design language sets the rest. The stepped disc and the reeded stem are streamlined moderne, the idiom that carried from the late 1930s through the post-war decade, and the toggle-bar fitting is the standard American dress fitting of that period. This was also the high tide of the cufflink itself: French cuffs were ordinary business dress from the 1940s until button cuffs took over through the 1960s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pair is offered as c. 1945 to 1960.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eType\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePair of men's cufflinks, toggle back\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHickok, Rochester, New York\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHICKOK U.S.A. stamped on the toggle bar of each link\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSetting\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDomed cherry-red cabochon in a plain polished bezel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMount\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGold-tone stepped disc over a reeded stem with reeded toggle bar\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1945–1960\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFace\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e0.625 in. across\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBoth links sound, toggles swinging and locking correctly. Cabochons bright with no chips or crazing found. Light surface wear to the gold tone consistent with age and use. No repairs found.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRed cufflinks are the easy version of a hard thing. A man who will not wear a pocket square will wear these, because they only show when he moves, and against a white cuff and a dark sleeve the colour reads as deliberate rather than loud.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey also work as objects. A pair of marked American cufflinks from the period when cufflinks mattered sits well in a tray on a dresser, in a shadow box with a watch and a lighter, or in a case behind glass. Hickok is a name worth having on them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48092134473833,"sku":"VE-1685","price":325.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_2787.jpg?v=1789877738","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/vintage-hickok-cherry-red-cabochon-cufflinks-pair-c-1945-1960","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}