Presentworth

When Belgian former fashion designer Martin Margiela debuted gold-Lurex knits while French luxury-goods Hermes Womenswear Artistic Director, simultaneously in Fall 1999, he introduced at his eponymous Paris-based Maison Martin Margiela a collection featuring 1970s-inspired Lurex-accented sweaters, along with oversized loose clothes intended for either women or men. Including a distinct black-printed white-folded tag stitched into a seam by Italian experimental knitter Miss Deanna, who created many memorable knits under Margiela's artistic direction, this Margiela sparkly finely-knit viscose-and-Lurex-blend long-sleeve pullover is a minimalist unisex design with narrow ribbed trim at the crewneck, wrists and hem. Its "Made In Italy" size 44 with a 15.5-inch shoulderline is without darts and drapes like a one-size-fits-most stretch T-shirt. The lightweight sweater was knit from pale-gold, grey and blue yarns into an ombre pattern like a dip-dye technique associated with fabric. Yet the additional glittery orange-tone metallic thread (difficult to photograph due to reflections) interspersed throughout was clearly not dyed or printed. Conversely, Margiela's Fall 1999 Artisanale Line 0 collection that was produced instead by his Parisian team explored the textural effects of hand-painting fabrics, such as the unisex T-shirts that were striped or obscured with thick silver paint. Earlier in the 1990s, Margiela had reproduced some vintage...

As a variation of the traditional waiter apron that Belgian former fashion designer Martin Margiela reworked with his eponymous Maison Martin Margiela since its first collection for Spring/Summer 1989, this minimalist convertible transparent black chiffon rectangular garment, which can be styled as a tied face veil, wrap skirt or dress, was part of his 1994 first retrospective collection. The iconic corner-stitched textural white-cotton brand label is stenciled with seemingly contradictory text referencing an earlier Fall 1990 collection. Instead of the blank label that had become internationally recognized among progressive-fashion buyers during the brand's initial five years, this black print was added in this manner for only one collection during its founder's tenure. This distinct typography identifies it as one of his favorites that he reproduced from his first 10 fashion shows. This season-less self-curated retrospective collection without any new designs was unprecedented in the ready-to-wear luxury-fashion industry, which sold only newly-designed clothes typically two to five times annually. In the early 1990s, this old-made-new-again collection was astonishing for a Paris-based high-end brand, for which any lack of fresh designs for Spring had otherwise been attributed to the loss of an artistic director or the outbreak of war. Nevertheless, there are subtle differences of color, material and draping possibilities that make our re-edition unique from the referenced 1990 apron and from later "replicas", which was the term that Margiela printed on a different kind of label for his second self-curated retrospective in Spring 1999 following 10 more collections. Aside from the text-printed brand label with four characteristic hand-sewn corner stitches, the only other element that unified Margiela's first collection of favorites was that all the items were overdyed a darker color so that the clothes were various shades of grey, blue or black depending on the original color of the textile and how much dye the thread/yarn absorbed. The first Margiela apron...

Belgium former fashion designer Martin Margiela for his eponymous Paris-based Maison Martin Margiela Spring/Summer 2007 collection in a minimalist style debuted this cherry-red crepe...

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-artisan 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...

With the finest fabric and tailoring--the base expectation for all progressive minimalist luxurious fashions designed for powerful women by German Jil Sander before the Prada-buyout ...

French-born Nicholas Ghesqueire, lauded since the 2000s for his innovative couture-like construction with atypical ready-to-wear luxurious fabrics, designed for his museum-collected ...

With Belgian former fashion designer Martin Margiela's original blank-white textural-cotton corner-sewn label from the early 1990s visible above the structural hole in the center of the circular knit, this openwork yarn top that is clearly a one-of-a-kind "Line 0" Artisanal garment by Maison Martin Margiela is crocheted from a brown soft animal-hair blend into a see-through changeante pattern recalling a collapsed spiderweb. A prominent European dealer sold a similarly designed but longer deconstructed openwork mohair-blend grey cape that also features a circular knit hole. Its remaining additional tag indicates that it was produced by Margielas' longtime Italian knitter Miss Deanna for the Autumn-Hiver 1993-1994 collection. Further, we have found similar one-of-a-kind Margiela openwork-knit and unraveling pieces, as well as one with oversized snaps like the fasteners on our top, dating back to his 1992 collections. Suggesting that our listing could have been from an even earlier collection, Antwerp's fashion museum MoMu featured a pale deconstructed mohair knit sweater dating from 1990 in its major Martin Margiela 20-year retrospective (see our snapshot), which was produced in collaboration with the designer during his final year at the house in 2008. Based on other Margiela couture pieces with more than one remaining identification tag, the design of our cardigan without a remaining text tag began as a vintage top collected by Martin Margiela to upcycle or reproduce, and/or it was made-to-order by Miss Deanna before he finished it to some degree with his Paris-based team. Our knit fastens with pompon-tipped yarn ties, along with two signature silver oversized-snap buttons, which most noticeably appeared on Margiela tops in 1994 for a collection that was inspired by toy-doll wardrobes and included human-sized reproductions of actual miniatures. For price comparison, another 1stDibs dealer currently lists a silver-oversized-snap-fastening brown faux-leather windbreaker "doll" jacket by Maison Martin Margiela for upwards of $7,000. Also on 1stDibs, two other Margiela 1990s...

Sleekly designed by Tom Ford, these Yves Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2003 slim high-waisted straight-leg jeans feature fine stretch-cotton denim, rear tucks, five pockets, and five b...

Italian Roberto Cavalli (1940-2024) designed this silk-and-cotton top-and-jeans ensemble for Spring/Summer 2003, which showcases his signature mix of animal prints with luxurious emb...

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...

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...

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...

This vintage amusing enameled silver pendant adjustable-chain unsigned necklace, belt or novel interior decoration features heart-shaped two-inch...

Stamped "Made In France" on antique brass back-plates like the initial unbranded couture costume jewelry since 1924 commissioned by French Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel for her foreign-cli...

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...

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...

With settings and construction like ArtDeco-period unsigned crystal costume-jewelry by Bavarian-born blacksmith Henry Schreiner (1898-1954), this mid-century unsigned silver-soldered...

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...

In the 1930s when French fashion couturier Jeanne Lanvin (1867-1946) was creating decorative bias-cut silk tulle overlays for her feminine full-skirted sleeveless "robes de style", she designed this black semi-transparent silk-tulle formal jacket featuring diagonally-striped topstitched silk-crepe appliques throughout the bias-cut panels. This sheer geometric-patterned cape-like jacket has a skirt that drapes from an open waistline and a top-fastening bodice with gathered rounded 3/4-length sleeves that each have two arm seams and shirred embroidered cuffs. The jacket can be styled slightly differently given its four small black hooks on the upper bodice above the bust. In our photos, we only fastened the top hook. Worthy of "sleeping beauty" status in a museum collection or fashion school, the design was among the first "swing coats" that were given that name around 1935 when Lanvin was the "uncontested leader in the haute-couture field"--according to the French Palais Galliera that has collected and exhibited similar garments at its fashion museum in Paris. As a match to a dress collected by Musee Galliera, another 1stDibs dealer has listed a damaged 1931 Jeanne Lanvin "Art Deco tulle gown" priced at $37,500, whose maxi-dress overlay is similarly constructed with ribbon-like silk strips to create a unique bold pattern. In New York, TheMet collected a 1927 House of Lanvin black evening coat with a similar shape to ours, which also features dramatic linear appliques but in a white starburst. The unprecedented modern look of this Art-Deco women's jacket, which was inspired by 18th-Century French and Spanish topcoats for aristocratic court dresses, seems to have been good cause for Maison Lanvin to custom-make some close reproductions of a one-of-a-kind couture original for additional clients in Paris, which is implied by the remaining French brand-label noting "Adaptation Jean Lanvin...

Azzedine Alaia (1935-2017) designed this knit pullover chemise-style sleeveless lavender violet viscose dress that features bias panels in back defined by his signature curvilinear s...

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...

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 whimsical kinetic unsigned pre-WWII yellow-gold-gilt brass necklace with elegant draping chains features a three-inch-long flexible 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, the marionette on our necklace wears a lace-like collar that resembles 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...

This Azzedine Alaia (1935-2017) black Spring ensemble features a new-condition triple-zipper fine-denim bodycon skirt from the iconic 1986 Alaia Paris brass-zipper collection. For a ...

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...

While a revolutionary futurist fashion designer in the late 1960s, Paris-based Paco Rabanne (1934-2023) created for an haute-couture client this hand-painted silk chiffon shawl, whic...

For his first collection for Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche while also creative director at Gucci, Tom Ford designed this Spring/Summer 2001 black two-layer peek-a-boo delphos-silhou...

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...

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...

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...

Tom Ford for his Gucci Spring/Summer 2001 collection toyed with the mid-century concept of nude sex-appeal embodied by the initial Playboy-bombshell Marilyn Monroe, who inspired that season's designs and ad campaign. With the themes of bare skin and black-seamed sheer stockings, Ford's opening looks on his fashion-show runway featured ecru corset dresses with black transparent or leather overlays and stiletto heels. Our versatile ecru leather tuxedo-influenced sharp-shoulder dinner jacket is from the same award-winning collection. Significantly, 2001 was the year that Tom Ford (b. 1961) won the Council of Fashion Designers of America womenswear award for Designer of the Year, while The Met acquired Ford's signature corset dress for its Costume Institute collection. Purchased at the Gucci boutique on Manhattan's Upper East Side, this "Made In Italy"-labeled jacket is tagged size 40, while suiting a US-size 4 to 6 with the padded shoulder-to-shoulder seam measurement of 15.4 inches and 23.6 inches arm length. The jacket is streamlined by marked and angled peak lapels, sleeve vents with concealed buttons, back symmetrical vent, and single-point closure near the interior seam via a tiny Gucci branded silver-tone metal clasp. Notably, these elements are among the most technically challenging to tailor. Fully lined in ecru silk-blend fabric, the jacket's left interior chest pocket sports button-and-fabric-loop closure and a fully sewn larger black Gucci brand label. For styling inspiration, we added photos of the jacket worn over our not-included black-tulle-covered ecru strapless balconette corset dress that was the Gucci Spring/Summer 2001 fashion...

Designed mid-Century by Austo-Hungarian Comtesse Cissy Zoltowska to feature her signature crackle glass, three multi-tone red balls are hand-set with nine claw-like elongated curving...

In the 1990s, French Thierry Mugler (1948-2022) designed this haute-couture labeled and numbered corset-style topstitched zigzag-panel nude-color cotton denim cocktail dress, which i...

For her Fall/Winter 2002 runway finale with the model embodying a "jeans bride", Stella McCartney debuted this unique ethereal lingerie-like black transparent silk georgette blouse ...

During the Art Deco period, this Surrealist sculpture set of two one-of-a-kind female figurines was handmade in hammered steel wire with patina estimated as early as the 1920s. Each ribald three-dimensional self-standing torso study of a woman features either three spiral springs (suggesting pregnant belly with large breasts...

Among the early standout sexy shoes designed by Stella McCarney for her eponymous British brand, these four-inch steel stilettos with maroon-ombre resin hee...

From one of the last fashion collections for French Maison Martin Margiela by its legendary founder Belgian artist Martin Margiela before he prematurely retired in 2009, this asymmet...

The late Italian Gianni Versace near the end of his life--cut short by his murder in July 1997--designed this couture heavily embroidered semi-transparent silk chiffon sleeveless hou...

Acquired from the French flagship Christian Dior Boutique in Paris when John Galliano was its artistic director of both haute-couture and ready-to-wear, he designed this hip-accentua...

Around 1970 when Bill Blass introduced his eponymous brand after becoming a leading couture fashion designer among New York City society, he created this sleek tuxedo-like ecru-satin...

While at Paris-based Balenciaga in late 2007, Nicolas Ghesquiere designed this silk-faile bias-cut paneled dress that explodes with a grey and pale-yellow flower print and features u...

For a formal special event, this 1980s maxi dress sleeveless gown by American designer Victor Costa features glamorous glossy red satin that is gathered, ruched and topstitched in bo...

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...

Uniquely designed as couture by French Jean-Charles de Castelbajac in the 1980s in Paris, this oversized soft cashmere-viscose-wool bias-cut Italian-knit black sweater has made-in-Fr...

Made in France in 1960 by the futurist fashion designer Pierre Cardin (1922-2020), this "Creation Paris" (all capitals including brand) couture pair of supple kidskin leather black g...

Made for the luxury standards of New York's trendsetting Bergdorf Goodman, this timeless quintessential corseted, shirred, ruched and topstitched "little black dress" was produced by Victor Costa in the 1980s. It was the first U.S. luxury department store to order exclusive special-occasion dresses from this Texan designer and subsequently to give him a namesake in-store boutique. He soon became associated with the feminine glamorous gowns worn by "PYT" (Costa-speak for pretty young things) on the Dallas-based television-series "Dynasty", which idealized status-conscious Texan women mostly via fashion and drama involving actress Joan Collins. With a strapless curvaceous sweetheart neckline, narrow sinuous folds of crepe silk-blend jersey cross diagonally below the decollete, while contrasting vertical ruching defines the seven bones of the invisible corset structure that is fully lined on the interior. Under the bust in front below the empire-like peaked high waist, the fitted tucked underlay of the cocktail dress wraps around the back to end as an overlay in front, where the opening on the left side extends to the bodice like a discreet slit. The freely hanging bias-cut overlay in front is gathered underneath each breast for a forgiving central drape that adds additional curves to make the wearer's torso underneath appear in sleek condition despite a potentially less than ideal figure. The dress closes with a concealed zipper in the center of the back, with exterior hook-and-eye fastening to narrow the waist. There is a second concealed hook-and-eye fastener at the top of the zipper. Although the only remaining tag is the Costa/Bergdorf label, it is a contemporary U.S.-size 8, which will also suit a large-busted size 6 or a svelte size 10. Now 88 years old, Victor Costa (b.1935) became widely known by the 1980s in The States for perfecting affordable luxurious gowns that could be mistaken for one-of-a-kind flamboyant designs by foreign couturiers Christian Lacroix, Arnold Scaasi, Oscar de la Renta or Valentino Garavani. Early on, the avid female sketcher...

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...

Evoking late-1980s couture with complex construction showcasing a wide variety of sewing techniques and French lace, this like-new "Christian Lacroix Paris Made In France" fuchsia-la...

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 ...

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...

While sleek cloche hats were the rage in Art-Deco "flapper" fashion, this fur felt hat was commissioned by Parisian couturier Elsa Schiaparelli and hand-crafted by an Irish milliner ...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

Influenced by the Art-Nouveau illustrations of Alphonse Mucha, this Nancy-signed antique French enameled glass jewelry box display case is decora...

This antique 19th-Century Italian glass choker collar features a technically-masterful link design that initially decorated chandeliers by the Seguso family, which founded Vetri d'Arte on the Venetian island of Murano centuries ago. In the style of elegant multi-pendant festoon necklaces from the mid-1800s, it dangles three one-inch drop pendants. The reddish pink mouth-blown glass balls with golden reflections are supported by brass findings. The handcrafted closed links appear to be miniature versions of the jewelry design made famous in the next century by the family's descendant Archimede Seguso (1909-1999), whom Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel worked...

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...

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...

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 business...

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...