Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches

This couture 1930s Coco-Chanel-commissioned French Maison Gripoix hand-crafted demi-parure features eight flower pendants whose daisy-like metal-smithed petal frames suspend transpar...

French Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel commissioned Parisian Maison Gripoix in the late 1930s to fabricate this elegant handmade drop-chain choker necklace for one of her couture clients. In...

Among the most in-demand designs by Trifari artistic director Alfred Philippe were his flora and "jelly belly" fauna jewelry from the 1940s. Both iconic styles can be mixed as the go...

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...

This 20th-Century Art-Nouveau style 18-karat white-gold-plated highly textural pendant features a prong-set abalone that is carved into seemingly overlapping flower petals in lustrou...

Victorian Belle-Epoque and Edwardian styles transitioned to Art-Deco period jewelry with semi-precious materials and machine-age shapes around WWI when this unique 20-link choker nec...

Demonstrating the epitome of miniature decorative art by Renaissance European goldsmiths who fashioned quatrefoil and cruciform jewelry with heraldry or religious symbols, this centu...

Stamped "Western Germany" on the gold-tone underside of its box clasp, this double-strand long necklace with cherry-red beads and decorative clasp features the reflective glossy face...

Encrusted with enameled turbo shells shaped like miniature mollusks and mixed with iridescent crystals, this elaborately ornamented and intricately textured unsigned pair of yellow g...

This Art-Deco period French carved, lathe-worked, sculpted and red-painted black-galalith figural brooch depicts a pair of long-limbed dogs, which may be gazelle hounds, wolfhounds, ...

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...

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

During the Art Deco period when Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was at her peak as a Parisian couture designer in the early 1930s and working closely with her favorite jewelry parurier Fulco di Verdura, for one of her clients, she commissioned this unique handcrafted gem-fringed medallion brooch with a yellow-gold circle rope of flexible thick chain that dangles from an unseen ornate open-work curvilinear yellow-gold base. Marked only "FRANCE" on the bar pin with a trombone clasp, like some early 1930s Chanel couture jewelry collected by TheMet museum, its artistry reflects the colorful organic-form starburst sketches of Verdura, which you can see from our photo of one of them. The Sicilian duke began creating fabric patterns for Chanel in 1927, which shortly expanded to executing fine jewelry beginning with custom pieces for the house founder. These included the iconic Byzantine-influenced gem-adorned cuffs referencing the Maltese-military cross, which the French designer can often be seen wearing in circa-1930s photos. Chanel reproduced some of Verdura's originals for her clients, but those variations featured faux gems. This softly-shaped abstract brooch design suits goldsmith Verdura's early anti-Art-Deco aesthetic that was considered a radical departure from 1920s silver-tone geometric jewelry, which otherwise featured linear designs or figurative representation. The deconstructed bouquet of gems mixes amethyst and rose-quartz beads with natural Keshi pearls and intricate tiny gold leaves, which are discreetly wired to a Baroque-motif frame that dangles a round gem surrounded by a chain halo. Significantly, Verdura was credited with re-introducing since Victorian times the rope motif to fine jewelry. Since 1930, Verdura's unique style was influenced by travels with Chanel to explore Byzantine art, Baroque architecture, and the exotic flora-and-fauna among his native Italian aristocratic estate. The legendary fashion editor Diane Vreeland and American entertainment stars were among the first Chanel clients to acquire couture real-gem-adorned jewelry made by Verdura, while one of the two brooches treasured by Vreeland was titled "Theodora". See our photo of the Byzantine mosaic of Empress Theodora, whose image--with an abundance of teardrop pearls and colorful gems above her chest, and with a gold halo surrounding her head--could have inspired the design of our brooch. As one of the most important modern-design collaborations, Chanel's close relationship with Verdura lasted largely undocumented years in Paris, until he launched his first outside jewelry venture with a Hollywood designer-boutique after emigrating to the United States in 1934. Within five years, as a financially-backed in-demand goldsmith in the States, he founded the namesake fine-jewelry company Verdura in New...

Distinguished by the tightly coiled style of Georgian-period-inspired cannetille gold wire that decorates the four pieces of this parure, French costume-jewelry designer Lina Baretti...

While contracted since 1953 as an independent craftsman to create one-of-a-kind costume jewelry for French Masion DeGorce, Parisian goldsmith Robert Goosens (1927-2016) was initially commissioned there to craft for Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel one-of-a-kind Byzantine-style long decorative-chain necklaces with unique sculptural gilt-metal or faux-pearl charms, which would be layered to accessorize her couture clothing for herself and clients. As the commissions from the fashion designer for his work mounted, by the following year Goosens began working directly for Chanel at a mobile workshop--continuing to create unsigned couture pieces while establishing Maison Goosens. Although Chanel began signing most of the jewelry by the late 1950s, the exception until Chanel's death was most often the long chain necklaces with simpler clasps that were among a multi-chain set designed by Goosens. Suggesting that this is the case for our unsigned gold-gilt barrel-clasped sautoir, the cast foliate prongs that cap its pendant are strikingly similar to the cast lobed-leaf prongs of the textural pair of faux-pearl button earrings and a capped-faux-pearl pendant earring that are published in a close-up photo (see our snapshot) in Jewelry By Chanel, the book written by Patrick Mauries. The caption (adjacent page 97) dates those likewise unsigned Chanel pieces to 1954-1971 when only Goosens would have executed them with his lost-wax casting. A lost-wax-cast sautoir pendant with similar foliate prongs signed Chanel with three stars (couture) was auctioned by Christie's in 2000 among "A Group of Five Gilt Metal and Simulated Gemstone Necklaces, Chanel" in which one piece of the lot was unsigned. The house noted in its catalogue that the pendant necklace had been published earlier that year in the Editions Plume book (page 28), Bijoux de Haute Couture: Collection Robert Goossens by Gilles Plazy and Chantal Bizot. Also characteristic of Robert Goosens for Chanel...

Distinguishing these couture Christian Dior Spring/Summer 1956 "Western Germany"-stamped silver earrings featuring the first Swarovski gold-foi...

Trimmed with 40 rose-cut diamond-like stones and marked "deposee" on the Swiss clasp like antique European couture jewelry, this Art-Deco period unique Bucherer luxury snake-chain dr...

A statement necklace from 2010 by Rodrigo Otazu, known for his extravagant creations for Madonna, Lady Gaga, and for the Sex and the City cast. Fashioned from multiple layers of gold...

Unusual vintage necklace composed of a chain caught with a pearl at the hollow of the neck before it continues to down to a pierced medallion ...

Signed "Made in France", this couture poured and lampwork glass flower-like spray brooch has its artisan-wired construction concealed by a decorative gilt filigree scalloped backplat...

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 gems were fuchsia Burmese rubies. In this Art-Deco glass-beaded sautoir tassel necklace, 37 unusual fuchsia faux-pearls are each delicately caged like hot-air balloons by seven textural strands of tiny 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 beads. 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 fashion rival couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, Schiaparelli (1890-1973) relied on the same French glassmakers, Maison Gripoix and Louis Rousselet--the masters of glass faux pearls at the time. Either 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 tricolor sautoir featuring fuchsia spheres could suit 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 tricolor sphere-decorated buttons and brooches or 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 dell' Arte" (see our 3 photos), fuchsia jackets are adorned with similar colorful spherical glass beads among embroidered appliques and animal or clown brooches, as well as whimsical painted-ceramic buttons...

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...

Between the first ad campaign that fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) commissioned from internationally admired Paris-based multimedia artist Marcel Vertes (1895-1961) for her blockbuster perfume "Shocking" in 1937, and in 1940 when they left France after launching her perfume "Sleeping" shortly before the Nazi occupation during WWII, the illustrator-cum-ceramist distinctly handmade--while traditional materials for couture costume-jewelry were scarce in Paris--this whimsical red glazed ceramic brooch, which depicts a duck holding an umbrella dripped with dashes of turquoise and black glaze to appear wet. Significantly, the trombone clasp of the brooch pin, the long-pronged gilt frame, and the text stamped on its back plate "Made In France" match a similarly sized glazed ceramic brooch of a decoratively chained bear that was published in the book Bijoux (page 146). The author Deanna Farenti Cera dated that likewise unbranded unsigned brooch to 1938 when it was commissioned for one of Schiaparelli's themed fashion shows "Circus". The invitation to that show, which was illustrated with circus characters and performing animals by Vertes' Parisian peer Christian Berard, included a domesticated white duck--notably not holding nor wearing a fashion accessory. Unusually, Schiaparelli had commissioned couture umbrellas from other artisans in the 1930s--a couple of which were acquired by TheMet museum. Another relevant Met acquisition of one of the designer's couture evening gowns, which it dates to Summer 1940, features three large glazed-ceramic fasteners in a contrasting color matching our brooch. The like findings, materials, construction, text, object and palette aside, accessory-adorned ducks were among the figurative animals commissioned by Schiaparelli for that last collection before the Germans dominated Paris by June 1940, which is evidenced by the photo of the dated gilt hatpin depicting a bejeweled bird head with a bill that appears in the book by Patrick Mauries about another Schiaparelli-associated French parurier Lina Baretti (pages 124-125). See our other listing for one of Baretti's uniquely feathered designs, which likewise has a pronged gilt frame with trombone clasp like ours, but whose partridge subject best suits an earlier Schiaparelli collection for Fall 1938 titled "Pagan". For us, distinguishing our brooch from other one-of-a-kind ceramic pieces created for Schiaparelli couture...

Giorgio Armani triple-strand statement necklace composed of three graduated rows, each string composed of bronze-tone metal suspending drops of round faceted opalescent stones below ...

Vibrant crystal beaded choker composed of four strands of faceted round yellow crystals in front and two strands in back, separated by quarter-round spa...

From the Art Deco period, this signed French couture set of yellow-gold pave-crystal brooch and earrings is marked in the manner of one-off costume jewelry commissioned...

This early Miriam Haskell lacquered shell and brass-and-wood-decorated clip brooch was created by Frank Hess, her first designer since 1926. The circa 1930 brooch features three seas...

Featuring five intricate rose-flower charms, Krementz finished this chain link bracelet with its characteristic multi-color gold gilding, which is known for being as much as 30 times thicker than the overlay of other jewelry companies as a testament to the enduring quality of its designs. The elegant textured linked shapes and flowers recall the Art- Nouveau style that distinguished the earliest designs by Krementz for women in the 1920s. The brand signature is on the fold-over clasp. As three pieces of this listing, the excellent-condition bracelet comes with its original signed green-velvet...

This colorful prong-set crystal spray brooch by Schreiner New York was made to compliment luxury clothing by a U.S.-based fashion designer, such as Pauline Trigere, in the late 1950s. This piece is special because it shows the unique decorative technique that Schreiner used for a period of several years in reaction to the limited availability of the first aurora-borealis (AB) stones by Swarovski in 1956, which had been designed for Christian Dior. In response to the availability of only the initial AB color that mostly reflected bright blue and the high demand from other designers, Schreiner's creative family soon applied transparent glass paint to create additional colors, such as the light-green painted AB crystals on this brooch. According to Henry Schreiner's late daughter who took over the business with her jewelry-designer husband, this enabled them to become the first to produce costume jewelry with AB stones in different colors, while Swarovski took several years to introduce similar colors. All original painted AB crystals are intact in this brooch, which is significant since a lost stone...

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...

Featuring yellow-gold sinuous-pattern rondelles and carnelian rock-crystal round 8mm beads, this ancient-revival heavy necklace is knotted in stations a...

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...

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...

This antique amuletic bronze framed pendant cages a dozen 7mm-diameter single-cut rock crystals that each feature a table-cut decagon crown, deep pavilion, 21 facets and uncut girdle, while the culets range from off-center to blunted. They are tightly set within four linked rings to overlap at the same angle in a sparkling single row. Seeming to retain a little of its original yellow-gold gilding on just the interior, the frame that surrounds each of the four sections of three crystals enables them to reflect pale yellow and lime light when the pendant is viewed from certain angles. Each crystal can be manually rotated. Suggesting French heritage, the medieval Frankish culture in northern France made jewelry in similar segmented or open-work shapes of wheels or whorls, which were worn as gem-decorated disk-shaped brooches or gold-caged rock...

In the style of Elsa Schiaparelli couture costume-jewelry and one of her paruriers beginning in the late 1930s, Jean Schlumberger, this hand-crafted highly textural glass and crystal...

While making similar Christian Dior haute-couture costume-jewelry since 1955, parurier Max Muller based near Kaufbeuren, Western Germany, created these exceptionally-clear crystal si...

These pink conch 14mm near-round natural pearl stud earrings, with early-20th-Century clips stamped "sterling", each weigh 3 grams including mountings for an exceptional 10-plus cara...

Accented by delicate emu feathers, this couture French silk chiffon flower brooch or hat pin was painted, cut and appliqued by hand to appear like a large rose. It was acquired in Fr...

Marked "Made In France" on their antique brass back-plates like the initial unbranded couture costume-jewelry commissioned by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel since 1924, these painterly earl...

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...

Signed with the early "Mazer Bros" signature, this Art-Deco period decorative link bracelet was created in the early 1930s while former Cartier designer Marcel Boucher was the design...

This couture French Maison Gripoix ornate glass pair of faux-pearl-turquoise-and-diamond gold-gilt clip earrings are both signed "France" on their convex ear pads, which is character...

Beginning in 1939, American Miriam Haskell asked her first designer since 1926 Frank Hess to sparingly use metal in their costume-jewelry collections during WWII while war materials were needed. So not unlike the Spring/Summer 2024 floral appliques designed by Balmain artistic director Olivier Rousteing, hand-crafted rose-motif plastic never looked more beautiful in the 20th Century than such eye-catching glossy creations as these ballet-pink clip earrings by Hess. In this reflective and sparkling pair of lightweight slightly asymmetrical climbers, shiny film-like rhodoid is hand-cut, layered in three dimensions for irregular shadows, and riveted with clear roses-montees to a thin silver metal frame, which replaced Hess' characteristic wired Russian-gilt brass frame while still resembling his earlier construction (see our other Haskell listing for an early double fur-clip chain lariat). The earring clips, with tiny holes that were used for unsigned Haskell...

All featuring white cat's eyes, the 21 gray 3mm ball-cut moonstones of this necklace are beaded symmetrically on this antique choker between stations of shiny 14-karat yellow gold fi...

This couture French Maison Gripoix fabricated faux-sapphire-topped-pearl glass cluster brooch and clip-earrings set dates to around WWII, when Parisian fashion designer Elsa Schiapar...

In a rare scissor cut dating to the 1500s, this centuries-old prong-set hogback rock-crystal pendant produces a fascinating play of refractions in low light. With its rectangular nar...

With artistic value as a Renaissance chiaroscuro miniature painting with precious ultramarine lapis-lazuli pigment, this early 16th-Century period gilt-filigree silver pendant medall...

Robert Goosens, the French Chanel-favorite haute-couture parurier who enjoyed reinterpreting ancient and antique styles of jewelry with rock crystal and faux stones, also collaborated with Madame Alix Gres as one of our photos documents. Relevant to this statement necklace, the Parisian theatrical-costume designer, who founded the French fashion-house Maison Gres, commissioned Goosens to make spiral-wire adornments for her couture gowns. This handmade hammered brass wire choker necklace with five dropped entremblant pendants is decorated with unique colorful beads and wrapped wire. The piece dates between 1969-1971 based on similar unsigned spiraled-wire metal jewelry without goldsmithing marks in the museum collection of TheMet, which acquired the necklace that we photographed from Maison Givenchy founder Hubert de Givenchy, who was one of most supportive fans of Gres. Like the legendary sculptural clothing designs of Madame Gres, this necklace was inspired by Greco-Roman costumes, while its sculpted shapes by Goosens reference her signature curvilinear fabric techniques that earned her the sobriquet of "the master of the wrapped and draped dress". Goosens (1927-2016), nicknamed Monsieur Bijou, also made jewelry inspired by other periods of antiquity to compliment the couture clothing of Coco Chanel, Cristobal Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent. After Goosens collaborated with Gres, he revisited golden spiral designs with Saint Laurent. Similar to the free-flowing fabric manipulated in Gres gowns, this hand-shaped necklace that we photographed in sunlight is a study in motion that drapes across a curvy cleavage. Adding drama to this necklace below its wire choker, the top teetering-wire pendant is a twisted and hammered horizontal double spiral, which is a Hellenistic symbol of life and transformation suggesting the breasts of a goddess of fertility and motherhood. Yet distinctly Goosens, 18 hand-cut and hand-dyed "ancient-Roman-blue" rock-crystal beads are wire-strung to weight a second tier of two separate vertical double-spiral pendants. On each, a wrapped-wire tube divides the blue beads. Between these vertical pendants in two tiers, the central vertical pendants each feature a one-of-a-kind multicolor bead (yellow/blue/red/black/white) in two lengths with abstract organic patterns recalling ancient Italian glasswork. Four more blue beads bracket these larger colorful beads. An additional 10 blue beads and 5 wire tubes decorate the bottom looped wire pendant, as well as the bottom of the wire choker. Like the hammered-wire jewelry designs of modern artist Alexander Calder, the creative complex construction of this necklace surprisingly required no metalsmith techniques, such as soldering or casting, just great skill with a jewelry pliers and hammer. For a bigger picture of couture clothing by Madame Gres during the decade beginning in 1969, she notably designed many museum-collected one-color silk-taffeta draped long gowns with empire waists and simple high collars or geometric cut-outs. Remarkably, the focal points for some of these unique dresses were at the wrists, from where long pouf sleeves voluminously droop around the hands to nearly the floor like two enormous long-petaled flowers. If paired with this equally downward-focused and balanced necklace from this same period, its bold Greco-Roman elements would have pulled a viewer's gaze of the dress from floor to face. Although there is no significant provenance for this necklace, hammered brass and tinted rock crystal were among the few materials repeatedly associated with Goosens from 1969-71. For example, in his overlapping interior-decor collections based on themes of waterlilies or foliage, Goosens hammered gilt brass wire and sheets (see our final closeup photo) to represent plant parts or he wired rock-crystal beads to appear as tiny fruits. While the two multicolor glass or resin beads in this necklace are atypical, the combination of blue, yellow and red is a palette that the designer used for other pieces of rock-crystal jewelry and he created many kinds of multicolor faux stones with glass or resin paste, such as faux Tibetan turquoise including black and white. According to journalism based on interviews with Goosens, he often acquired unusual stones and glass for inspiration during his extensive travels exploring museum-collected antiquities. Since Maison Goosens was acquired in 2005 by Maison Chanel, it opened the Parisian showroom Galerie Goosens and associated shops to sell many kinds of reproductions and reimagined works by the founder, which fortunately does not suit the completely handmade elements of this necklace. So this couture piece remains one-of-a-kind. If desiring a vintage haute-couture original by Robert Goosens, we recommend perusing the Maison Goosens website so that a reproduction with a contemporary signature is not mistakenly purchased. Madame Gres (1903-1993) was born Germaine Emelie Krebs, but initially identified her fashion designs with the pseudonym Alix and later Alix Barton...

This antique French chain necklace with three-inch drop pendants features 33 natural citrines, including 16 polished-teardrop and 17 faceted-bead golden quartz beads. It was construc...

Recalling the recent Parisian Haute Couture Dior women's fashion show runway where most looks designed by Jonathan Anderson were accented by large flower brooches, the Dolce & Gabbana S/S 2000 ready-to-wear show was likewise distinguished by an oversize silk-flower accessory, which in this case was the rose motif of the Italian luxury house's design duo. This pale-peach seven-inch-diameter rosette jewelry was worn by models in various ways (see our snaps of FirstView coverage). With a brand label sewn to the back of this jewelry that was made in Italy in 1999, its unusual "cufflink" rectangular hardware enables it to be looped through a scarf or neckerchief, narrow belt...

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...

On this antique early Art Deco-period solitaire cocktail ring, a long rectangular mirror-cut black onyx is surrounded by 28 faceted marcasite stones. The American silver ring, whose ...

When fuchsia Burmese rubies were among the most expensive gems in the 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli began to embrace the "shocking pink" color while designing French couture clothing and ...

Featuring handmade double-spiral filigree links, this vintage collar choker necklace was created by tightly twisting fine silver wire, which was ...

This antique Art-Nouveau-period solitaire ring features unique inter-grown azurmalachite that is more outstanding than the kind often featured in fine jewelry by David Webb or Jean Schlumberger. First appearing like an intense green-blue black opal...

With the Coro signature "script-no-angle" since 1919 and "PAT.PEND.", this early Art Deco vermeil lady bug beetle brooch features a red enameled face and mixed-cut bezel-set red and ...

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,...

This unique Jugendstil Art Nouveau period early-20th-Century intricate sterling pendant with celestial-motif openwork recalling shape-shifting bats in flight by master silversmith Ge...

Featuring ornate stamped-brass findings c1930, this Miriam Haskell floral-motif collar necklace was made by her first designer Frank Hess in an Art-Nouveau style with 15 dangling bud-shaped or fluted-ball pendants, which are linked by intricately textured bands and oval rings that form the chain choker. Among the festoon of graduating charms, the largest centered pendant is 1.5 inches long and 0.75 inches in diameter. One of our photos show that the surprisingly light-weight pendants are hollow--some with a hole punched at the bottom. The distinct stamped brass, which include a fold-over clasp, are found in more obviously Haskell-Hess pre-WWII jewelry...

For Trifari by mid-century, its artistic director French-born Alfred Philippe designed this yellow-gold set including the seven-bar linked collar with central invisibly-set diamante,...