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Avon’s roots as a perfume company go back to 1886, when David H. McConnell founded the California Perfume Company in New York City and, with the help of a clever businesswoman named Persis Foster Eames Albee, he developed a multi-level marketing business type that empowered women to work for themselves, selling fragrances and toiletries to other women across the United States.

The first Avon costume jewelry pieces were not offered for sale but sent to customers as a free gift or premium when they purchased a certain amount of cosmetics or toiletries. In 1965, Avon sold a handful of jewelry pieces, but most of the Avon jewelry from this period was sold packaged with a perfume or other cosmetic product. An early Avon jewelry collection, first released in March 1967, was named The Precious Pretenders. It featured a necklace and clip-on earrings with sparkling rhinestones and filigreed metal covered in gold-leaf that gave the set the look of fine jewelry.