A hand wired white milk glass brooch by distinguished designer Miriam Haskell. Miriam Haskell (1899 to 1981) Miriam Haskell was a celebrated American jewelry designer, business woman, and costume jewelry pioneer. She was noted for her original but affordable hand-made costume jewelry, which successfully reflected, and was sensitive to, both the economic times and historic events in America, be it the Great Depression of the 1930s or the war years of the late 1940s. Coming to the fore in America at a time when Coco Chanel had just launched her vrais bijoux en toc, or real fake jewelry, collection in Europe, Miriam was able to ride on an American obsession with French fashion and model her early jewelry on European costume jewelry, competing directly with Chanel and Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli.