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Early20thC ByzantineRedCrossPendant LampworkGlass Galalith SilverToggle Necklace

About the Item

Characteristic of the large chunky shapes including Byzantine-style crosses favored by French couturiers Gabriel "Coco" Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Lacroix for their costume jewelry, this mostly glass and galalith beaded necklace is dominated by a red marbled stone pendant. Capped with a black glass bead at the bottom, the large rough-cut cross bead is hand-wired to the necklace that features stations of five round beads, including swirled-copper lampwork glass and copper-painted galalith, between eight square tiger-striped lampwork glass beads. We date the necklace to the early 20th Century given the use of white galalith for its smallest beads, which is visible with a loop around their holes where there is some copper enamel loss. Along with an unsigned decorative silver toggle clasp, these findings resemble those handcrafted by Parisian parurier Louis Rousselet, whose workshop since 1920 catered to French couture houses including Chanel to supply the finest decorative beads made of glass, galalith or metal for one-of-a-kind costume jewelry. While we could not verify that Chanel added stone beads to her early glass-and-galalith necklaces, similar red-limestone crosses can be found inlaid in the floors of Italian ancient religious sites in Venice and Verona. Chanel, who enjoyed exploring such archeological wonders for inspirational artifacts, frequently visited those cities while she began creating couture costume jewelry by the mid-1920s to fully accessorize her clothing for clients. The necklace color-palette further suggests Byzantine-period beads that included hematite, gold, bronze and amber. Although Chanel may be best known by costume-jewelry collectors for her Byzantine-style glass-adorned gilt metal crosses, she notably chose to be buried in a marble vault marked with a simple cross and five engraved lion heads symbolizing her lucky number and astrological sign--without glass decoration. So marble should not be overlooked as a luxurious material that Chanel loved and likely included in some of her unsigned early jewelry. More so, her favorite mid-century parurier Robert Goosens collected unusual stones on international travels that inspired some of the pendants in his jewelry for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Madame Gres. With no certainty as to who designed this unusual necklace, we have priced it for less than our other unmarked early-20th-Century costume jewelry with Rousselet findings that were easier to identify as Chanel or Miriam Haskell.

Metal:

Gold,Silver,Copper

Stone:

Quartz

Stone Cut:

Rough Cut

Weight:

74 g

Dimensions:

Width: 2.25 in (57.15 mm)Diameter: 5.5 in (139.7 mm)Length: 16.5 in (419.1 mm)

Style:

Byzantine