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Couture 1930s ElsaSchiaparelliStyle Pink FauxRubyGoldGlassBeads Tassel Sautoir

About the Item

Long before Barbie, Elsa Schiaparelli famously embraced "shocking pink" for her Surrealist-aesthetic couture clothing and handcrafted costume jewelry, which she commissioned from Parisian paruriers beginning in the late 1920s--when some of the most expensive jewels were fuchsia Burmese rubies. In this antique glass-beaded sautoir tassel-necklace, 37 "shocking pink" balls are each delicately caged like hot-air balloons by seven textural strands of faux-pearl-and-gold seed beads. These spherical stations are spaced by lustrous white medium-size faux pearls, ending in a four-strand seed-bead tassel that cages four of the fuchsia faux pearls. The beads are strung on bright magenta silk cord without a clasp. Sautoirs were an essential element of flapper style since Schiaparelli's couture-mentor Paul Poiret changed the silhouette of clothing in the 1920s, while the long necklaces remained popular until wartime 1939. To compete with her rival couturier Gabriel "Coco" Chanel, Schiaparelli (1890-1973) relied on the same French glassmakers, Maison Gripoix and Louis Rousselet--the masters of faux pearls at the time who added organic-ingredient coatings to their handmade glass beads. Either glass workshop that was established by the 1920s could have been commissioned to make the progressive hot-pink pearls for this unsigned necklace that dates to the Art Deco period. The design of this highly-textural tri-color sautoir featuring fuchsia spheres particularly suits the style of one of Schiaparelli's most frequent paruriers through the 1930s, Jean Clement. Some of his relevant unsigned work for Schiaparelli is in museum collections like The Met, including highly-textural tri-color sphere-decorated buttons/brooches and a fuchsia-toned metal-rosebud bead necklace. After Schiaparelli had become associated with fuchsia, she made particularly prolific use of this bright magenta in the late 1930s. In her demi-couture collections such as "Circus" and "Comedia del' Arte" (see our 3 photos), fuchsia jackets are adorned with similar colorful spherical glass beads among embroidered appliques and animal/clown brooches, as well as whimsical painted-ceramic buttons, like a topless mermaid wearing a fuchsia-and-gold-accented sautoir just like ours! Since Lina Baretti--dubbed the "Suzanne Belperron of costume jewelry", designed couture pieces for Schiaparelli for multiple themed collections from 1936-1938, we personally think that this necklace was designed and hand-assembled by her as it includes her characteristic textural and intricate embroidery-style construction, as well as materials including thread, glass beads and faux pearls. It is not just the patinated Parisian custom-fuchsia faux pearls and the same-sautoir-bedecked mermaid imagery that associate this necklace with Schiaparelli. Its caged-bead construction suggests the walk-in bird cage that she had installed in her Parisian Place-Vendome-located Maison Schiaparelli. In the 1930s, its interior was designed fantastically by Jean-Michel Frank so that she could attract buyers beyond her couture clients to her new limited-edition handcrafted jewelry and accessories, plus perfumes. While much of the Schiaparelli-commissioned jewelry is unsigned, she most often identified chain necklaces with the addition of a signature gilt-metal tassel on one end. Her later licensed jewelry continued to rework the tassel motif. In 1937, Schiaparelli debuted her hit perfume, "Shocking", whose glass-enclosed pink bottle in the shape of a female torso was designed to rest on a fuchsia base. The print advertisements that initially marketed the perfume worldwide were heavily illustrated in this bright magenta. Last year, the Parisian major retrospective of the Italian designer's work and collaborations concluded after six months at the Musee des Arts Decrotifs. Titled "Shocking! The Surreal World of Elsa Schiaparelli", the exhibition included couture jewelry from the time that this sautoir originated.

Metal:

Gold

Stone:

Pearl

Stone Cut:

Bead

Dimensions:

Width: 0.5 in (12.7 mm)Depth: 0.5 in (12.7 mm)Diameter: 8.5 in (215.9 mm)Length: 15 in (381 mm)

Style:

Art Deco

Place of Origin:

France

Period:

1930-1939

Date of Manufacture:

late 1920s or 1930s

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses. When inspecting with a loupe, there are microscopic losses of the hand-applied gold coating on some of the glass seed beads (see our closeup photos), which should be expected on a faux-pearl necklace that is a century old.

Seller Location:

Chicago, IL

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU3244218435882

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