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Bakelite 1930s German ArtDeco GoldRinged EmeraldBallPendants ChainLink Necklace
About the Item
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 Gabriel "Coco" Chanel. She only produced her trend-setting hand-crafted jewelry since the 1920s in France, where galalith was the more popular form of colorful plastic. See our other listing for an early unsigned Chanel silver-chain necklace with similarly large ball charms, which is comparatively made with galalith and glass along with with distinct decorative metal caps by the workshop of one of her paruriers Louis Rousselet in the late 1920s.
Since this necklace is gold-plated, it seems to have been made in the 1930s when jewelry fashion revisited gold-tone metals since the predominance of platinum, white gold, silver and chrome that launched the Art Deco style.
- Metal:
- Weight:171 g
- Dimensions:Width: 1.5 in (38.1 mm)Diameter: 8.5 in (215.9 mm)Length: 26 in (660.4 mm)
- Style:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1930s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Chicago, IL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU3244221273102
About the Seller
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1stDibs seller since 2022
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- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: North Adams, MA
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 1 day of delivery.
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