MIDDLEPORT — The glass display case at Royalton Hartland Community Library is back in use, holding the first of what library management hopes will be many community-created exhibits. On show through April 30 is a sample of library Friend Becky Burns’ vintage Sarah Coventry jewelry collection.
Sarah Coventry® Fine Fashion Jewelry, established in 1949, was aimed mostly at a rural market, according to Burns. Elegant, sturdy and affordably priced, Sarah Coventry chokers, necklaces, brooches, watches, earrings and bracelets were popular pieces from the 1950s into the early ‘80s. Often sold as parures (ensembles in which the pieces are matching), each set or piece had its own aspirational name; and similar to Tupperware, you could only acquire it by finagling an invitation to a home party.
Burns’ fond memories of Sarah Coventry go back to the 1950s and early ‘60s when she was growing up in Middleport and her mother was a company “Fashion Show Director,” working through home party hostesses in Niagara and Orleans counties to put some pizzazz in the everyday outfits of homemakers. “At the time there were not many outlets for costume jewelry, so this was ideal,” she said.
Decades later, when Burns was in her “garage saling” phase and her mom often tagged along, Burns spotted a vintage Sarah Coventry piece and they both enjoyed the memories that it evoked. When mom couldn’t tag along any more, Burns started buying up vintage pieces to bring to her for more of those good memories.
“I had a few pieces, then a few more, and then suddenly I had a collection,” Burns said. “A fairly large collection. … It was just kinda fun for me to do it.”
Burns also has a “junk” jewelry collection, and last year she started giving away pieces while co-teaching a junk-jewelry art class at the place once known as Middleport Free Library.
Burns has fond memories of that, too, as she and her mom both spent a lot of time there, until the family moved to Lockport. She said her mom used to joke, they had to move because mom had read all the books in Middleport.
Burns said the junk-jewelry art class went over big — she’ll be teaching another one this year — and she ended up joining the Friends of the Royalton Hartland Community Library.
“Nothing would have pleased my mother more,” she said.
The Sarah Coventry exhibit is the first one that’s been in the display case at the front of library in awhile, according to new library director Angelina DiMascio. Donated to the library decades ago by the Middleport-based Barge Canal Art Center, the display case originally featured the works of local artists and crafters on a rotating basis. It’s designated for community use now, and DiMascio is trying to get word out that it’s available to youth, civic and service groups as well as crafters, collectors, et cetera. The display case can be reserved for one month at a time, she said; request forms are available at the library.