Bakelite 1930s German ArtDeco GoldRinged EmeraldBallPendants ChainLink Necklace

This vintage cherry-fruit charm necklace featuring red hand-painted wood is constructed of silver chain links and its clasp extension-chain is decorated with a single red bead. The green leaves that trim the fruit beads are a surprising two-tone plastic, indicating that they were also handcrafted. Notably, the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli is famous for including custom plastic elements in her mostly unsigned jewelry that accompanied her couture collections in the late 1930s. Please see TheMet online archive to view Schiaparelli's most well-known couture necklace structured from plastic supporting metal insects...

Featuring 12 large patinated pearlescent charms distinctly handcrafted by Parisian Louis Rousselet--the master glass-and-metal-ornament parurier for French couture fashion houses since 1920--this heavy silver chain necklace is made in the unique chunky style of Coco Chanel that she introduced in the 1920s. Capping Rousselet's signature Art-Deco-period handmade beads, his intricate multi-texture metal caps for these balls resemble organic shapes like the stems of acorns and fruit. In a bib arrangement, the duotone reflective spheres--in black glass, blue-gray enameled galalith, and silver metal--draw attention to the bust of the wearer. Aside from chain jewelry commissioned by Chanel, Rousselet-style jewelry was usually constructed with thin wires or braided string to enable his beads to attract the most attention. Notably, this necklace fastens with an enlarged spring-ring clasp that became associated with increasingly heavy Chanel costume jewelry. Like 1920s Chanel jewelry by Rousselet, the necklace is both unmarked for French origin and unsigned. In subsequent decades, variations of chunky-charm chain necklaces were reproduced by Chanel with her other paruriers using different materials in which they specialized, such as a similar Chanel-signed piece in the 1960s by bronze-maker Maison Denez...

From the same 1976 collection by Hubert de Givenchy (1927-2018) as this necklace, TheMet acquired a similar design (accession 1984.598.41). Without the rhinestones of the museum-collected piece (see our photo for comparison), this signed and dated two-tone gilt snake-chain choker features a similar curvilinear interlocking metal...

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 Gabriel "Coco" Chanel worked...

Around 1930, Miriam Haskell's first designer Frank Hess designed this Russian-gilt brass ribbed-chain link bib necklace featuring 27 strands of varying length each wired to aqua faux-turquoise pressed glass beads with characteristic gold pronged-bell caps and thumbless spring-ring clasp. After the Great Depression began in the United States in 1929, to keep her popular European-style costume jewelry affordable among fashionable ladies, Haskell began using less expensive imported handcrafted glass beads, which included Czech and German pressed glass. Initially when she opened her handmade ready-to-wear costume-jewelry business in 1926 in New York City's downtown McAlpin Hotel, she had used only the finest Parisian glass beads and findings like French couturiers including Coco Chanel who soon became her competition. which Haskell promoted with the French name of her first boutique Le Bijou de L'Heure. If interested in assembling a suitable set of early Haskell-Hess pieces with similar aesthetics, please see our other listings for the aqua glass-and-enamel scalloped button clip earrings and the "peacock" coil arm-band bracelet with Parisian lampworked glass, faceted crystal, painted galalith beads, and cupped rose...

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...

This beautiful pendant made of 18 carat rose gold for 9.12 grams boasts a central rubelite of 1.1 carat and 332 VS G color diamonds for a total of 1.7 carats. the lenght of the neckl...

PANIM 19.23 Carat Diamond Rosecut & Ruby 18K White Gold Tassel Necklace Mesmerizing approximately 20cts finely crafted Diamond Rosecuts with a melange of Natural Rubies weighting up...

PANIM 18K White Gold Diamond Beads & Diamond Illusions Hexagon Necklace In this necklace Beads diamonds are evenly spaced on a white gold chain. This piece can be worn everyday, alo...

This DUBINI coin necklace from the 'Empires' collection features an authentic Macedon coin from 168-148 B.C. set in 18K yellow gold with bullet am...

This DUBINI coin necklace from the 'Empires' collection features an authentic Ariarthes VII Philometor minted circa 116-101 B.C. silver coin set in 18kt gold with aventurine disc. D...

This DUBINI coin necklace from the 'Empires' collection features an authentic Roman bronze coin minted circa 307-337 A.D. set in 18K yellow gold with rose quartz disc. Disc diameter...