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ArtDeco 1927-1936 MarcelBoucher MazerBros GlassAccented Decorative LinkBracelet
By Marcel Boucher
Located in Chicago, IL
Signed with the early "Mazer Bros" signature, this Art-Deco period decorative link bracelet was created in the early 1930s while former Cartier designer Marcel Boucher was the design...
Category
Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Link Bracelets
Materials
Citrine, Crystal, Gold, Silver, Gilt Metal
GripoixChanelGoosens RenaissanceStyleGiltBronzeOpenwork GlassCabochonGems Brooch
Located in Chicago, IL
With distinct handmade glass by French Maison Gripoix for a faux-amethyst 25mm domed open-back oval cabochon poured into a forged wire ring topped with a serrated-bezel setting, this...
Category
Vintage 1950s French Renaissance Revival Brooches
Materials
Amethyst, Chalcedony, Turquoise, Yellow Gold, Bronze, Gilt Metal
Gripoix ElsaSchiaparelli ShockingPinkGlass HandKnottedDoubleStrand Beaded Choker
By Elsa Schiaparelli
Located in Chicago, IL
When fuchsia Burmese rubies were among the most expensive gems in the 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli began to embrace the "shocking pink" color while designing French-couture clothing and ...
Category
Vintage 1930s French Artisan Beaded Necklaces
Materials
Multi-gemstone, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold, Bronze
Antique 33 Citrine PolishedTeardrops
FacetedBeads Bronze Chain Drop Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
This antique French chain necklace with three-inch drop features 33 natural citrines including 16 polished-teardrop and 17 faceted-bead golden quartz. It was constructed by hand from...
Category
Early 20th Century French Artisan Drop Necklaces
Materials
Citrine, Bronze
Couture ChanelGripoix 1930s PouredGlassAquaFlowerPendants ByzantineChain Parure
By Maison Gripoix for Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
This couture Coco-Chanel-commissioned French Maison Gripoix handcrafted early-20th-Century demi-parure features eight flower pendants whose daisy-like metalsmithed petal frames suspe...
Category
Vintage 1930s French Byzantine Pendant Necklaces
Materials
Gilt Metal, Mixed Metal, Enamel, Bronze
Gripoix c1930s CocoChanel France Glass Intricate GiltBronze Chain Bib Necklace
By Maison Gripoix for Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel commissioned French Maison Gripoix in the 1930s to fabricate this elegant handmade chain choker necklace for one of her couture clients. In the Mughal style t...
Category
Vintage 1930s French Anglo-Indian Beaded Necklaces
Materials
Turquoise, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal, Bronze
Miram Haskell c1930 Stamped Brass FloralMotif Pendants LinkChain Choker Necklace
By Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
Featuring stamped-brass findings c1930, this Miriam Haskell collar necklace was made by her first designer Frank Hess in an Art-Nouveau style with ornate floral motifs for its 15 dangling bud-shaped or fluted-ball pendants, along with intricate textural patterns on the bands that link the oval-ring chain choker. Among the festoon of graduating charms, the largest centered pendant is 1.5 inches long and 0.75 inches in diameter. One of our photos show that the surprisingly light-weight pendants are hollow--some with a hole punched at the bottom.
The distinct stamped brass, which include a fold-over clasp, are found in more obviously Haskell-Hess pre-WWII jewelry...
Category
Vintage 1930s American Artisan Link Necklaces
Materials
Brass
Couture 1930s Bucherer Depose ArtDeco 18kGold 40StoneTrimmedWatch TennisBracelet
By Bucherer
Located in Chicago, IL
Trimmed with 40 rose-cut diamond-like stones and marked "deposee" on the Swiss clasp like antique European couture jewelry, this Art-Deco period unique Bucherer luxury snake-chain dr...
Category
Vintage 1930s Swiss Art Deco Tennis Bracelets
Materials
Crystal, Mixed Metal, White Gold, Stainless Steel, 18k Gold, Platinum
Couture Antique Chanel Late1920s France Rousselet Lampwork Glass Floral Earrings
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
Marked "Made In France" on their antique brass back-plates like the initial unbranded couture costume-jewelry commissioned by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel since 1924, these early-handcraf...
Category
Vintage 1920s French Artisan Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Brass
Renaissance FleurDeLis Niello HighRelief Gilt Engraved HeraldryReliquary Jewelry
Located in Chicago, IL
Demonstrating the epitome of miniature decorative art by Renaissance European goldsmiths who fashioned quatrefoil and/or cruciform jewelry with heraldry or religious symbols, this ce...
Category
Antique 16th Century European Renaissance Brooches
Materials
Gilt Metal, Niello, Silver, Copper
Couture S/S1956 SignedDiorDesigner First AB Crystals WesternGermany Earrings
By Christian Dior
Located in Chicago, IL
Distinguishing these couture Christian Dior Spring/Summer 1956 "Western Germany"-stamped silver earrings featuring the first Swarovski gold-foi...
Category
Vintage 1950s German Modern Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Crystal, Silver, Base Metal
$1,135 Sale Price / set
50% Off
Couture 1937-40 ElsaSchiaparelli MarcelVertes HarlequinDuck GlazedCeramic Brooch
By Elsa Schiaparelli
Located in Chicago, IL
Between the first ad-campaign that legendary fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) commissioned from internationally-admired Paris-based Hungarian-born multimedia artist Marcel Vertes (1895-1961) for her blockbuster perfume "Shocking" in 1937, and in 1940 when they left France after launching her perfume "Sleeping" shortly before the Nazi occupation during WWII, the illustrator-cum-ceramist distinctly handmade-- while traditional materials for couture costume-jewelry were scarce in Paris--this whimsical red-glazed ceramic brooch depicting a duck holding a "wet" umbrella dripped with dashes of turquoise or black glaze.
Significantly, the trombone clasp of the brooch pin, the long-pronged gilt frame, and the text stamped on its back plate "Made In France" match a similarly sized glazed-ceramic brooch of a decoratively-chained bear that was published in the book Bijoux (page 146). The author Deanna Farenti Cera dated that likewise unbranded unsigned brooch to 1938 when it was commissioned for one of Schiaparelli's themed fashion shows "Circus". The invitation to that show, which was illustrated with circus characters and performing animals by Vertes' Parisian peer Christian Berard, included a domesticated white duck--notably not holding nor wearing a fashion accessory.
Unusually, Schiaparelli had commissioned couture umbrellas from other artisans in the 1930s--a couple of which were acquired by TheMet museum. Another relevant Met acquisition of the designer's couture evening gown, which it dates to Summer 1940, features three large glazed-ceramic fasteners in a contrasting color matching our brooch.
The like findings, materials, construction, text, object and palette aside, accessory-adorned ducks were also among the figurative animals commissioned by Schiaparelli for that last collection before the Germans dominated Paris by June 1940, which is evidenced by the photo of the dated gilt hatpin depicting a bejeweled bird head with a bill that appears in the book by Patrick Mauries about another Schiaparelli-associated French parurier Lina Baretti (pages 124-125). See our other listing for one of Baretti's uniquely feathered designs, which likewise has a pronged gilt frame with trombone clasp like ours, but whose partridge subject best suits an earlier Schiaparelli collection for Fall 1938 titled "Pagan".
For us, distinguishing our brooch from other one-of-a-kind ceramic pieces created for Schiaparelli couture...
Category
Vintage 1930s French Artisan Brooches
Materials
Gold, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
Modernist BertoiaStyle Kinetic Silver 8Bead SpiralWire 3Band Asymmetric MensRing
Located in Chicago, IL
Recalling some early-mid-century modernist one-of-a-kind unsigned silver jewelry featuring delicate kinetic parts, tiny forged balls, and thin-wire work by American metal-worker Harry Bertoia, this aged silver unsigned spiraled wire open ring with essentially 3 bands is structured with 3 silver beads forged on both ends and in the center that are notably misaligned. The additional 5 among the 8 balls are kinetic for sliding, but only from one end to the fixed central ball. The subtle asymmetrical design encourages the wearer to think about the single ball--that is identical to the others--that will always remain isolated, unlike mindlessly toying with a traditional "fidget" ring or bracelet.
For insight, view the early silver rings and wire brooches by the artist found in the online catalogue raisonne assembled by the Harry Bertoia Foundation, which may authenticate his unsigned jewelry for a fee that was prohibitive to us while we offer it for sale. Do not overlook his circa-1940 mens-size aluminum 3-sectioned open ring topped with 3 rows of 5 adjacent small matching geometric shapes, nor his circa-1943 spiraled-wire hatpin with 3 white beads, which share significant aesthetics with our inch-diameter ring including the numeric 1-3-5-8 elements. Unlike the ring that we found, those unsigned Bertoia pieces have documented provenance.
Comparatively, another 1stDibs dealer is currently offering an unauthenticated early-Bertoia-style silver wire pendant...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modernist Band Rings
Materials
Silver
$2,340 Sale Price
35% Off
Couture 1938 France Depose ElsaSchiaparelli Pagan FeatherCrystalGold Bird Brooch
By Elsa Schiaparelli
Located in Chicago, IL
Unusually decorated with small partridge feathers like the yellow-gold gilt necklace commissioned by Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) that is featured on the front-and-back covers and centerfold of the French costume-jewelry hardcover book, Lina Baretti Parures, authored by Patrick Mauries, this unique pave-crystal yellow-gold gilt metal partridge-on-a-branch brooch is further distinguished as an unsigned Parisian-couture piece for Italian-born Schiaparelli with its combination of embossed text "Made In France" and "Modele Depose", along with the trombone clasp often used in the early 20th Century for custom-made French small brooches.
The book centerfold on pages 90-91 shows a closeup of the feathered necklace created by French-born Corsican Baretti, whose intricate decoration often mixed ready-made textural or shiny materials like velvet, cork, metal wire, rhodoid, raffia or feathers with custom-made metal, plastic or glass by specialized Parisian workshops such as Maison Gripoix. The Baretti-book caption about the attributed necklace notes: "Collier realise pour Elsa Schiaparelli. Liege, soie, cannetille, perles de verre et plumes de perdix. Chaine en metal." While none of the captions date this necklace--which could have been from the same commission as our brooch--Baretti created one-of-a-kind jewelry for Schiaparelli from the 1930s to the early 1950s until the fashion designer retired.
Our brooch was most likely made for a fashion-show debut of one of Schiaparelli's themed clothing collections in the late 1930s for which she commissioned many costume-jewelry paruriers including Baretti. See our photo of a Schiaparelli 1930s...
Category
Vintage 1930s French Artisan Brooches
Materials
Crystal, Gold, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
Couture 1950s French Montague Wired GlassBeads CrystalEnameledRondelles Earrings
By Francoise Montague
Located in Chicago, IL
In the 1950s while he operated an eponymous Parisian couture costume-jewelry boutique, Francoise Montague designed these unique handmade ornate pair of sparkly clip earrings featurin...
Category
Vintage 1950s French Artisan Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Crystal, Mixed Metal, Gilt Metal, Enamel
MidCentury SculpturalTexturedGoldBowClasp Graduated4Strand Snake Chain Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
This mid-century shiny yellow-gold-plated snake-chain multi-strand necklace features a sculptural finely-textured gilt-metal bow that is positioned to rest on the upper left chest to...
Category
Vintage 1940s American Modern Multi-Strand Necklaces
Materials
Yellow Gold, Gold Plate, Base Metal, Gilt Metal
Antique HandPressed Glass European GoldFiligreeCapped Beaded Heavy Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
This antique rare hand-pressed-glass necklace features semi-translucent grape-green large beads that are capped with gilt-brass filigree. Based on the combination of bead seams, spring-ring clasp, and metal findings on the unmarked faux Chinese-jade necklace, it dates to the late Victorian period most likely from Western Europe.
Around WWI, hand presses, which stamped molten glass into a mold to create a bead with a hole and a seam, were often used to produce costume jewelry as a cottage industry in Germany and the Czech region. This was while there was a lack of factory machine presses and finishing tumblers that used sand to polish out the seam lines.
Another reason that the cloudy green beads can be identified as atypically hand-pressed is that they are more opaque and therefore harder and less prone to breaking during formation than fully-translucent glass, which was better suited for automated-machine pressing. Also the green beads are an unusual swirled color including white, which suggests that their production was more limited than machine-pressing would enable.
Without the bead-seams, this necklace could be mistaken for one by Coco Chanel. Her 1920s couture...
Category
Early 20th Century German Late Victorian Beaded Necklaces
Materials
Gold, Brass, Gilt Metal
Couture Chanel Late1920s MadeInFrance WiredPearlLampworkGlass BrassClip Earrings
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
Stamped "Made In France" on their antique brass back-plates like the initial unbranded couture costume-jewelry since 1924 commissioned by French Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel for her forei...
Category
Vintage 1920s French Artisan Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Pearl, Cultured Pearl, Brass
ArtDeco 5BlackDiamond-FacetedSpinels 6BezelSetCognacDiamonds CastSilver Earrings
Located in Chicago, IL
Featuring five sparkly black opaque spinels with diamond-shaped facets and splintery vitreous surfaces, along with bezel-set champagne diamonds with yellow or peach reflections in su...
Category
Mid-20th Century Art Deco Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Spinel, Black Spinel, Brown Diamond, Silver
MiriamHaskell Early SignatureGrapeCluster GlassPearls 1920s Pendant Necklace
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
Featuring the earliest white-swirled glass and enameled faux-pearl round beads handcrafted by Parisian lampwork-master Louis Rousselet for American entrepreneur Miriam Haskell and he...
Category
Vintage 1920s American Baroque Revival Beaded Necklaces
Materials
Pearl, Silver
ArtDeco 491 ProngSetCrystals SchreinerStyle SilverSolder 35" ChokerNecklace Belt
Located in Chicago, IL
With settings and construction like Art-Deco-period unsigned crystal costume-jewelry by Bavarian-born blacksmith Henry Schreiner (1898-1954), this mid-century unsigned silver-soldere...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Art Deco Drop Necklaces
Materials
Crystal, Silver, Base Metal
Couture Chanel Late1920s MadeInFrance WiredPearl&LampworkGlass BrassClipEarrings
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
Like the initial unbranded couture costume-jewelry since 1924 commissioned by French Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel for her foreign-client ensembles, "Made In France" was stamped on their a...
Category
Vintage 1920s French Artisan Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Pearl, Cultured Pearl, Brass
Miriam Haskell 1930 Fringe Glass
BrassBar Pendants ChainLink Art Deco Necklace
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
Featuring a relatively heavy fringe of dangling Russian-gilt brass bars and contrasting French-blue textural hand-pressed glass beads topped with filigree caps to resemble flower bud...
Category
Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Pendant Necklaces
Materials
Brass, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
KineticPuppetStringsPinocchio GoldTexturedChainLink3Strand Early20thC. Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
Acquired in The States and likely inspired by the American 1938-commissioned animated-feature movie, Pinocchio, that was produced for two years by Walt Disney based on an Italian children's story, this unsigned pre-WWII yellow-gold-gilt brass necklace with elegant draping chains features a three-inch-long playful kinetic multi-textured faux-carved-wood puppet-on-strings pendant with pointed hat, filigree-capped collar and waist, and flexible geometric-shaped limbs. Structured with three chains, notice the additional texture on the slightly larger links of the upper necklace.
Unlike the movie, as the marionette on our necklace wears a lace-like collar resembling the original character illustrated by Enrico Mazzanti in the book by Tuscany-born Carlo Collodi, The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), the necklace otherwise could date no earlier than the turn of the 19th Century when the spring-ring clasp was first in use. Since that time, Pinocchio became one of the most reimagined characters in literature based on multiple authors whose protagonist was a similar anthropomorphic puppet.
To be conservative about its age as the necklace is in good condition, we suspect that Austrian-born Hattie Carnegie commissioned it to accessorize her "hat-to-hem" custom-made or ready-to-wear clothing that frequently featured amusing figural subjects with articulated parts, such as mythical creatures, fauna or clowns. Before her death at the age 69 in 1956, not all of the pieces in the costume-jewelry parures of her eponymous brand since 1919 were signed, while based on experience we assume that at least clip earrings accompanied this creative necklace...
Category
Early 20th Century American Artisan Pendant Necklaces
Materials
Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal, Brass
Schiaparelli Signed MidCentury LeavesMotif Austrian Crystals Gilt Link Bracelet
By Schiaparelli
Located in Chicago, IL
Signed "Schiaparelli" in script, this mid-century link bracelet features a textural-leaves motif characteristic of costume jewelry by the Parisian couturier Elsa Schiaparelli. Like m...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Post-War Tennis Bracelets
Materials
Crystal, Yellow Gold, Base Metal, Gilt Metal
Trifari 1930s Alfred Philippe ArtDeco GreenGoldGlass MicroBead 20Strand Necklace
By Alfred Philippe for Trifari
Located in Chicago, IL
On this Art-Deco period glass micro-bead 20-strand necklace, the yellow-gold-plated clasp is stamped with a crown-topped Trifari signature without a U.S.-copyright symbol, which Indi...
Category
Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Multi-Strand Necklaces
Materials
Gold, Yellow Gold, Base Metal, Gold Plate
$875 Sale Price
30% Off
Antique GiltSilverFiligree FauxEmeraldChrysoberylPearl Gold Link&Chain Bracelet
Located in Chicago, IL
Possibly as old as the 1800s or a later Baroque-revival imperceptible reproduction, this antique handcrafted gold gilt-silver vermeil filigree-frame textured-chain link bracelet likely originated in the European region of Austria-Hungary-Germany. We partly base this on its brilliant blue-green glass jewels in the rare trace-mineral saturated color of authentic alkaline Columbian emeralds. Including a decorative box-clasp, the ornate bracelet also features 14 prong-set round white pearls mostly mounted on the open-work filigree and 6 marquise-cut vanadium chrysoberyl...
Category
Antique 1860s European Holbeinesque Link Bracelets
Materials
Emerald, Pearl, Beryl, Chrysoberyl, Zircon, Gold, Gilt Metal, Silver
Schreiner NY 1950s 22 ProngSet Crystals AB
PiecrustSetPaleYellow Clip Earrings
By Henry Schreiner
Located in Chicago, IL
In 1956 when Christian Dior's ultra-feminine New Look had dominated fashion for nearly a decade, Schreiner New York handcrafted these opulent unsigned earrings with 22 prong-set open-back crystals to accompany the eveningwear of an American high-end fashion designer. They may have been for client Pauline Trigere when her ready-to-wear collections with accessories including unmarked-Schreiner jewelry were sold by NYC's Bergdorf Goodman and worn by her clients including Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Elizabeth Taylor. Comparatively, Schreiner jewelry produced in the 1950s for direct sale to high-end department stores, such as Neiman Marcus, Henri Bendel and Saks Fifth Avenue, were the only pieces to include a brand signature.
Using the best quality European crystals that were custom-made for him, the founder Henry Schreiner was among the world's leading glass-jewelry designers before he died in 1954, whereafter his daughter and her husband continued with their handcrafted production. The family shared this distinction with Western Germany-based Max Muller and Paris-based Roger Jean Pierre, who were commissioned to create haute-couture pieces for the world's leading fashion houses. Notably in 1949, Henry Schreiner was commissioned by Dior to create several exclusive pieces.
We know these earrings were not created earlier than 1956 because of the use of iridescent coating on some of the crystals that produces a rainbow effect. Known as aurora-borealis (AB) stones, Swarovski initially produced them exclusively for a haute-couture collection that year by Dior. Shortly thereafter, the Schreiner team had access to such colorful stones, and most certainly used them as soon as possible to enable their American fashion-designer clients to compete with the new Dior iridescent-colors trend.
At the bottom tips of the marquise-shaped pale yellow stones...
Category
Vintage 1950s American Modern Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Crystal, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
$500 Sale Price / set
50% Off
Couture Cis Zoltowska Fingerlike ProngSet CrackleGlass RedBalls Silver Earrings
By Countess Cis Zoltowska
Located in Chicago, IL
In the mid-century, Austro-Hungarian Comtesse Cissy Zoltowska designed haute-couture costume jewelry with elements of hand-craftsmanship for some of the leading European houses inclu...
Category
Mid-20th Century European Modern Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Silver, Mixed Metal
1941 ChanelRelevant American Reinad ArtDecoStyle Silver PolkaDot LargeBow Brooch
By Reinad
Located in Chicago, IL
In Spring 1941 after French fashion couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel had stopped production of her clothing designs while she remained in Europe during the WWII era, the decades-old American costume-jewelry company Reinad began imprinting pieces in its new retail line, Chanel Novelty Co, with the script signature "Chanel". As this was prior to the use of the sans-serif capital-letter signature "CHANEL" on French-made jewelry that was commissioned by the Parisian designer, as well as before U.S.-copyright protection began in 1955, the House of Chanel that was mostly owned by the Jewish Wertheimer family of venture capitalists (who remarkably still produced Parfums CHANEL and French-vineyard wine via legal proxy while they lived in asylum in The States during the war) filed a U.S. lawsuit to demand that Reinad halt the use of its founder's famous last name.
As the Werthheimers' quickly won, Reinad only produced the single seasonal collection stamped with the French brand name, and subsequently only imprinted its company name as the sans-serif capital-letter signature "REINAD" without a copyright symbol, which was different that its prior signatures dating back to its founding in 1922. When Chanel herself resumed French-made fashion production in Paris in 1953 (with Werthheimer support leading to their acquisition of all rights to her name despite her post-war eight-year exile in Switzerland due to close association with Nazis), for the first time all of her creations were signed "CHANEL" like the original packaging of the exceedingly profitable "No.5" perfume.
While Reinad continued to produced costume jewelry until 1954, in the last decade of this business, the U.S. company continued to try to appeal to potential Chanel buyers by at least making Chanel-style designs. As such, owning an attractive and well-made Reinad piece can be considered a useful investment in fashion history as evidence of a little-known turning-point involving the most famous ongoing luxury-fashion business Chanel, as well as of the impact of that legal judgement had on advancing U.S. design protection for brands that later used the copyright symbol.
Like early ArtDeco-style oversized heavy metallic costume jewelry by Chanel, this three-dimensional monochrome silver-alloy polkadot bow brooch imitates a pale polkadot-textured ribbon. Notably, while high-quality ribbon for styling hair or decorating clothing in a non-functional way was still an expensive accessory...
Category
Vintage 1940s American Art Deco Brooches
Materials
Rhodium, Silver, Base Metal
Trifari 1930s Philippe Gold Textural DropEarrings
Tassel HeavyChain Sautoir
By Alfred Philippe for Trifari
Located in Chicago, IL
Signed "Trifari" with a crown and without a post-1955 U.S.-copyright symbol on all three matching pieces, this likely late-1930s highly-textured yellow-gold-plated demi-parure was designed by American Trifari's French-born head designer Alfred Philippe after he had honed his fine-jewelry craftsmanship while creating luxury parures for Cartier and Van Cleef
Arpels. The set features a heavy tasseled eight-strand chain sautoir necklace and earrings with dropped fluted-ball pendants,
With French-style signed clip fastening, the contrasting-texture two-inch-long earrings each have two twisted fluted round beads in different sizes, with the larger one capped at both ends with additional shapes and textures.
On the necklace, this textural contrast is amplified with the inclusion of many chains. The decorative chain caps and...
Category
Vintage 1930s American Baroque Revival Chain Necklaces
Materials
Gold, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
Couture ChristianLacroixParis SilkSatin RareBlackLacquerTop OversizedEvening Bag
By Christian Lacroix Paris
Located in Chicago, IL
Designed to accompany Parisian couture by French Christian Lacroix, this unused late-1980s large pale-celadon-green silk satin, which feature textural black topstitching and a sleek ...
Category
Vintage 1980s French Artisan Bangles
Couture Gripoix CocoChanelEra SignedFrance PouredGlass RobertGoosens Earrings
By Maison Gripoix for Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
This couture French Maison Gripoix ornate glass pair of faux-pearl-turquoise-and-diamond gold-gilt clip earrings are both stamped "France" on their convex ear-pads, which is characte...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Art Deco Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Crystal, Turquoise, Pearl, Gold, Gilt Metal
HattieCarnegie PostWWII Crystal GoldGiltMesh FlutedBalls Dangle Climber Earrings
By Hattie Carnegie
Located in Chicago, IL
Hattie Carnegie (1886-1956)--one of the leading American entrepreneurs of made-to-order and ready-to-wear fashion for four decades--began producing costume-jewelry parures around WWI...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Baroque Revival Dangle Earrings
Materials
Crystal, Gold Plate, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal, Gold
Bakelite 1930s German ArtDeco GoldRinged Green Ball Pendants ChainLink Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
Most likely made in Germany during the Art Deco period, this vintage unsigned long heavy 12-pendant gold-gilt chain-link bib necklace features ball charms of gold-ringed emerald-green matte Bakelite. Hanging 13-inches from the back of the neck, the long necklace is constructed with elegant double-ring links, while it fastens with a large toggle and decorative bar.
Each end of the toggle bar resembles stacked balls, recalling the oval-cartouche stacked-cannonball signature of German jewelry chain-specialist Jakob Bengel, who founded his business in Idar-Oberstein in 1873. Due to WWII, the Bengel factory, which is now a museum, permanently closed. His pre-1940 unsigned designs were largely overlooked until his factory catalogues were rediscovered decades later, which enabled 21st-Century books to be published about one of the leading manufacturers of Art Deco costume jewelry. Bengel pieces without the cartouche can be distinguished by thin metal chain links combined with single or bi-color Bakelite pendants in repeating geometric shapes like balls, semi-circles, rectangles, bars, rings or ribbed texture.
As Germany was the first country to license Bakelite for factory production since the 1910s, during the next 20 years its costume-jewelry designers began to feature locally-produced colorful Bakelite instead of glass or early semi-synthetic plastics. Between the world wars during poor economic conditions in Germany, its jewelry producers who were manufacturing for export were not motivated to stamp their country on such products.
The design of this Bakelite-charm necklace seems inspired by one-of-a-kind chunkier-chain charm necklaces commissioned for couture clothing ensembles by international fashion leader Parisian Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. She only produced her trend-setting commissioned jewelry...
Category
Vintage 1930s German Art Deco Chain Necklaces
Materials
Yellow Gold, Base Metal, Gilt Metal
Antique ArtDeco French LampworkGlass GalalithFans SilverRondelles Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
This antique French early Art-Deco period two-strand necklace is strung with a variety of Parisian handcrafted beads that date to the early 1920s, including sea-green lampwork glass,...
Category
Vintage 1920s French Art Deco Multi-Strand Necklaces
Materials
Rock Crystal, Silver, Sterling Silver
MiriamHaskell 1930s Torsade Set GiltFiligreeCapped FauxPearls Earrings
Choker
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
During the Art Deco period, Miriam Haskell's first designer Frank Hess designed this blue-and-white glass-beaded hand-sewn torsade set of dangle earrings and a choker necklace, whose knotted string is capped with their characteristic Russian-gilt brass flora filigree. Coinciding with the American Great Depression, to offer some less expensive costume jewelry than her initial ready-to-wear styles featuring Parisian hand-crafted materials found in French couture, Haskell reduced the cost of some of her findings by locally sourcing stamped metal and incorporating hand-pressed glass beads from Germany and Czechoslovakia.
With a loop, the line from hand pressing the glass can only be found on the blue beads, while the white ones are coated in an organic material like authentic French faux pearls. The ends of the textured cords that string the beaded set were frayed to form a fuzzy opaque dome that hides the knots attached to the filigree caps.
No Haskell jewelry was signed before 1947. The unsigned necklace...
Category
Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Beaded Necklaces
Materials
Brass, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
Antique French NancySigned ArtNouveau MuchaMajorelleGruberStyle SilveredGlassBox
By Daum
Located in Chicago, IL
Influenced by the Art Nouveau illustrations of Alphonse Mucha, this Nancy-signed antique French enameled glass jewelry box display case is decora...
Category
Antique 1890s French Art Nouveau Figurines and Sculptures
Materials
Gilt Metal, Mixed Metal, Silver Plate, Brass, Bronze
Antique RareVenetian ArchimedeSegusoStyle HandblownGlass Links Pendants Necklace
By Archimede Seguso
Located in Chicago, IL
Like elegant multi-pendant festoon necklaces from the mid-1800s, this antique 19th-Century Italian glass choker collar by the Seguso family that founded Vetri d'Arte on the Venetian island of Murano features three one-inch-drop pendants, which here include reddish pink mouth-blown glass balls with golden reflections that are supported by brass findings and unusual ecru glass links that form a chain. The handcrafted closed links appear to be miniature versions of the style made famous in the next century by the family's descendant Archimede Seguso (1909-1999), whom Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel worked...
Category
Antique 19th Century Italian Artisan Chain Necklaces
Materials
Brass
Louis Rousselet ArtDeco Glass FloralLampwork BlackBeaded SilverToggle Necklace
By Louis Rousselet
Located in Chicago, IL
With a distinct silver twisted toggle clasp and multiple kinds of nubby rondelles dating to the late 1920s, Parisian parurier Louis Rousselet's workshop handcrafted this glass beaded...
Category
Vintage 1920s French Art Deco Beaded Necklaces
Materials
Silver, Sterling Silver
Antique ArtNouveau European FauxLampwork Glass Flora CherryBlossom Long Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
With a silver clasp that could be as old as the Victorian period and in an Art-Nouveau style with pale intricate flora motifs, this antique long glass necklace features lampwork-like...
Category
Vintage 1920s Austrian Art Nouveau Beaded Necklaces
Materials
Silver
ArtNouveau Austria Scheid RareMark Pave BlueZircon Silver Snake Antique Brooch
By Georg Adam Scheid
Located in Chicago, IL
During the Art-Nouveau period while German-born Vienna-based silversmith, niello master, and entrepreneur Georg Adam Scheid (1837-1921) was prospering from a related refinery busines...
Category
Early 20th Century Austrian Victorian Brooches
Materials
Aquamarine, Diamond, Sapphire, Zircon, Silver, Sterling Silver
Henry Schreiner 1930s ProngSetCrystal Flora Spray Paisley ShadowBox Gilt Brooch
By Henry Schreiner
Located in Chicago, IL
Henry Schreiner, the Austrian-born blacksmith founder of Schreiner New York in 1932, handcrafted this multi-color prong-set Bavarian-crystal, stylized-flora spray, gold-gilt brass br...
Category
Vintage 1930s American Artist Brooches
Materials
Crystal, Brass, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
Miriam Haskell WWII FrankHess Layered Rhodoid
Crystal Montee Climber Earrings
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
Beginning in 1939, American Miriam Haskell asked her first designer since 1926 Frank Hess to sparingly use metal in their costume-jewelry collections during WWII while war materials were needed. So not unlike the Spring/Summer 2024 floral appliques designed by Balmain artistic director Olivier Rousteing, hand-crafted rose-motif plastic never looked more beautiful in the 20th Century than such eye-catching glossy creations as these ballet-pink clip earrings by Hess. In this reflective and sparkling pair of lightweight slightly asymmetrical climbers, shiny film-like rhodoid is hand-cut, layered in three dimensions for irregular shadows, and riveted with clear roses-montees to a thin silver metal frame, which replaced Hess' characteristic wired Russian-gilt brass frame while still resembling his earlier construction (see our other Haskell listing for an early double fur-clip chain lariat). The earring clips, with tiny holes that were used for unsigned Haskell...
Category
Vintage 1940s American Modern Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Crystal, Mixed Metal
MiriamHaskell WWII PurpleGlassFlowers GoldLeaves WiredPlasticBack Pre1945 Brooch
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
Beginning in 1939, Miriam Haskell asked her first costume-jewelry designer Frank Hess to spare the use of metal during WWII while war materials were needed in the United States. So t...
Category
Vintage 1940s American Baroque Revival Brooches
Materials
Mixed Metal
RobertGoosens for CocoChanel Gilt LostWaxCastPearlTalisman&Charms Chain Sautoir
Located in Chicago, IL
While contracted since 1953 as an independent craftsman to create one-of-a-kind costume jewelry for French Masion DeGorce, Parisian goldsmith Robert Goosens (1927-2016) was initially commissioned there to craft for Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel one-of-a-kind Byzantine-style long decorative-chain necklaces with unique sculptural gilt-metal or faux-pearl charms, which would be layered to accessorize her couture clothing for clients and herself. As the commissions from the fashion designer for his work mounted, by the following year Goosens began working directly for Chanel at a mobile workshop--continuing to create unsigned couture pieces while establishing Maison Goosens. Although Chanel began signing most of the jewelry by the late 1950s, the exception until Chanel's death was most often the long chain necklaces with simpler clasps that were among a multi-chain set designed by Goosens.
Suggesting that this is the case for our unsigned gold-gilt barrel-clasped sautoir, the cast foliate prongs that cap its pendant are strikingly similar to the cast lobed-leaf prongs of the textural pair of faux-pearl button earrings and a capped-faux-pearl pendant earring that are published in a close-up photo (see our snapshot) in Jewelry By Chanel, the book written by Patrick Mauries. The caption (adjacent page 97) dates those likewise unsigned Chanel pieces to 1954-1971 when only Goosens would have executed them with his lost-wax casting.
A lost-wax-cast sautoir pendant with similar foliate prongs signed Chanel with three stars (couture) was auctioned by Christie's in 2000 among "A Group of Five Gilt Metal and Simulated Gemstone Necklaces, Chanel" in which one piece was unsigned. The house noted in its catalogue that the pendant necklace had been published earlier that year in the Editions Plume book (page 28), Bijoux de Haute Couture: Collection Robert Goossens by Gilles Plazy and Chantal Bizot.
Also characteristic of Robert Goosens for Chanel...
Category
Vintage 1950s French Byzantine Pendant Necklaces
Materials
Pearl, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal, Silver, Vermeil
Mimi Di N 1981 GoldGiltMetal Set Pinecone Sprays ConvertiblePendants BeltBuckles
By Mimi di N
Located in Chicago, IL
This highly-textural gold-gilt metal two-piece belt buckle or convertible pendant depicting sprays. of pine cones and needles was designed by Mimi di N in 1981, as noted in the signe...
Category
Vintage 1980s American Artisan Pendant Necklaces
Materials
Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
Couture 2000s Four HandCut Rubies Italian Goldsmith Sterling Silver Hook Earring
By UGO CACCIATORI
Located in Chicago, IL
Italian-Riviera goldsmith Ugo Cacciatori designed this signed one-of-a-kind sterling-silver hook earring featuring four hand-cut rubies for a fashion show during a Paris Couture Week...
Category
Early 2000s Italian Contemporary Drop Earrings
Materials
Ruby, Sterling Silver
Artist1990s Sterling FreshFlower Pendants ChainLink Jewelers
Werk Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
Created by a gallery-exhibited progressive artist in the 1990s in a way that foreshadowed TheMet museum exhibition "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion", this ingenious signed sterling-silver chain link collar necklace features eight convertible pink-gem-accented pendants that can fasten your own pierceable larger elements, such as fresh flower heads or cut felt.
It was initially acquired in the late 1990s from the U.S. avant-garde modern jewelry exhibition space Jewelers' Werk based in Washington D.C., which is printed on the included original black box with gold text. The versatile necklace that fastens with a handcrafted filigree floral clasp enables the wearer to choose from a wide variety of objects that can be pierced by the removable prong-set sparkly fuschia studs--from felt balls to folded origami paper--to attach to the likewise removable oxidized sterling cups.
The perhaps morganite or crystal studs, whose silver ends are not visible after affixing such objects, can be mixed or interchanged with your own earring stud(s) or dangling pieces to enable more movement when worn.
As shown in photos, a buyer can avoid the contact of such interchangeable objects with long hair by removing studded cups towards the back of the neck, whereby symmetrical sterling-stud fasteners that serve to link the chain necklace will discreetly remain. If the collector would like to use all of the sterling cups that surround the neck, one of their studs is missing its crystal, which can be replaced if entirely pink stones are preferred.
We photographed the necklace populated with fresh and dehydrating daisy heads, which slowly wilt or dry while worn. With inspiration from TheMet current museum exhibition featuring beautiful contemporary clothes designed to show the passage of time, along with some of its archived fragile fashion based on the fiction-inspired theme "The Garden Of Time...
Category
1990s American Artisan Pendant Necklaces
Materials
Crystal, Morganite, Sterling Silver
Black Tahitian Pearl Dutch DroogDesign 1998 Unique Third Nipple Gold Disk Brooch
By Artistian Made
Located in Chicago, IL
In the 1990s when the Dutch collective Droog introduced international leaders of late 20th-Century functional art such as Ron Arad, Marcel Wanders, Jurgen Bey, Hella Jongerius, and Tejo Remy, the Netherlands-based brand was one of the most successful producers of conceptual design. The collaboration was co-founded in 1993 in Amsterdam by the jewelry and product designer Gijs Bakker (b. 1942), who commissioned his protege French artist Frederic Braham in 1998 to create this one-of-a-kind brooch for his young Droog-represented jewelry line "Chi ha paura...?". The Italian phrase means "who is afraid of?".
This natural satin-lustre South Sea black-Tahitian 15 x 10 mm baroque thick-nacred pearl, which is bezel-set in oxidized sterling on a sharp silver stud for push-back fastening as a lapel or tie pin, is surrounded by a removable textured gold disk brooch with the Chiapaura maker's mark, artist's signature, abbreviated year and assay symbol. Notably, while farmed pearls from this French-Polynesian region are scarce, it is rarer to find one over 12mm. This dark gray one is also exceptional for its desirable secondary tone of peacock green with minimal surface imperfections.
From normal use, the unseen back of the disk is missing chips of ecru enamel where it contacts the fastening knob. This reveals that the disk is solid gold.
Like other functional conceptual design represented by Droog, the brooch is more than a beautiful piece of fine jewelry featuring multiple contrasting elements, as it could be a provocative "third nipple" if worn on a tie or scarf. Given the Dutch origin of the brand, we recall the famous 15th-Century oil-painting by Johannes Vermeer, known as "Girl with a Pearl Earring". Who is afraid of girl or boy with a third nipple?
We acquired this brooch from a jewelry collector who had purchased it from the Italian gallery...
Category
1990s Dutch Artist Brooches
Materials
Black Pearl, South Sea Pearl, Pearl, Gold, Silver, Mixed Metal, Sterling...
Julianna Delizza&Elster AuroraBorealisEncrusted Chunky Gunmetal SixLink Bracelet
By Delizza
Elster
Located in Chicago, IL
New York City designers Delizza
Elster created this eye-catching sparkly colorful chunky heavy six-link gunmetal bracelet in the late mid-centu...
Category
Vintage 1960s American Baroque Revival Link Bracelets
Materials
Crystal, Base Metal, Copper, Gilt Metal
Miriam Haskell 1940s Earliest Signature RussianGilt Brass FleurDeLis Earrings
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
With the earliest brand signature from 1947-1949, these Miriam Haskell (1899-1981) hand-wired Russsian-gilt brass floral French-wire-clip earrings were created by her first designer ...
Category
Vintage 1940s American Baroque Revival Clip-on Earrings
Materials
Brass, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
MiriamHaskell 1926-1939 Crystal Glass Galalith Beads GoldGilt WireCoil Bracelet
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
This Miriam Haskell (1899-1981) brass-wire wrap coil bracelet that features handcrafted peacock-colored beads and decorative gold-gilt brass was created by her first designer Frank H...
Category
Early 20th Century American Baroque Revival Beaded Bracelets
Materials
Crystal, Brass, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
ArtDeco Marcasite&Pyrite Sparkly SterlingSilver Geometric Filigree WideBand Ring
Located in Chicago, IL
Encrusted with mixed-cut pyrite and marcasite stones for gold and silver reflections, this extremely-sparkly double-rimmed wide thick sterling-silver ring was designed by an artisan ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Art Deco Cocktail Rings
Materials
Marcasite, Pyrite, Sterling Silver
Schreiner 1950s ProngSet UniqueGreen ABCrystals PaveCrystalLeaves Silver Brooch
By Schreiner of New York
Located in Chicago, IL
This colorful prong-set crystal spray brooch by Schreiner New York was made to compliment luxury clothing by a U.S.-based fashion designer, such as Pauline Trigere, in the late 1950s. This piece is special because it shows the unique decorative technique that Schreiner used for a period of several years in reaction to the limited availability of the first aurora-borealis (AB) stones by Swarovski in 1956, which had been designed for Christian Dior.
In response to the availability of only the initial AB color that mostly reflected bright blue and the high demand from other designers, Schreiner's creative family soon applied transparent glass paint to create additional colors, such as the light-green painted AB crystals on this brooch. According to Henry Schreiner's late daughter who took over the business with her jewelry-designer husband, this enabled them to become the first to produce costume jewelry with AB stones in different colors, while Swarovski took several years to introduce similar colors.
All original painted AB crystals are intact in this brooch, which is significant since a lost stone...
Category
Vintage 1950s American Modern Brooches
Materials
Crystal, Silver, Brass
Couture GaultierDesigner 2000s SemiPreciousStones Textiles DangleChains Earring
By Jean Paul Gaultier
Located in Chicago, IL
In the early 2000 while French Jean-Paul Gautier remained the designer at his eponymous Parisian fashion house, a Paris-based haute-couture runway-accessory designer was commissioned by him to create this handmade decadent street-culture-inspired wire-hook earring with multiple tumbled semi-precious stones, gilt chain and cord, and multi-color sequins that suggest divergent international cultures. On both the front and back, an explosion of deconstructed couture-textile remnants...
Category
Early 2000s French Egyptian Revival Chandelier Earrings
Materials
Quartz, Coral, Tiger s Eye, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
CoutureCocoChanel 1930s LinaBaretti BlackCamellias PaveCrystals YellowGold Set
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
This signed French couture set of pave-crystal and yellow-gold brooch and earrings from the Art-Deco period is marked in the manner of one-off costume jewelry commissioned...
Category
Vintage 1930s French Art Deco Brooches
Materials
Crystal, Gold, Gold Plate, Silver
AncientGreekStyle Sculptural OpenWork BezelSetLapisCabochon Handmade Gold Ring
Located in Chicago, IL
Sold as a vintage ring in Greece, this ancient-style gold-smithed sculptural open-work band features at its raised end a bezel-set lapis cabochon, while the other end of the by-pass ...
Category
20th Century Greek Classical Greek Cocktail Rings
Materials
Lapis Lazuli, Yellow Gold, Gold, Gilt Metal, Bronze
AntiqueArtNouveau 1920s RedPouredGlass Czech Neiger BrassFiligree Dangle Brooch
Located in Chicago, IL
In the 1920s in an Art-Nouveau style, Czech costume-jewelry designer Max Neiger created this brass dangle brooch that features three different shapes of ...
Category
Vintage 1920s Czech Art Nouveau Brooches
Materials
Brass, Mixed Metal
Trifari Philippe1940s JellyBelly
PearlFlowers GoldPendants SignedChainNecklace
By Alfred Philippe for Trifari
Located in Chicago, IL
Among the most in-demand designs by Trifari artistic director Alfred Philippe were his flora and "jelly belly" fauna jewelry from the 1940s. Both iconic styles can be mixed as the go...
Category
Vintage 1940s American Modern Pendant Necklaces
Materials
Pearl, Gold, Vermeil, Yellow Gold
