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Item Ships From: Berkshires
MiriamHaskell 1930s Torsade Set GiltFiligreeCapped FauxPearls Earrings & Choker
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
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...
Category
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
Antique ProngSetWhiteJade GoldMilgrainFiligree ConvertibleBrooch Ring Pendant
Located in Chicago, IL
Known as "mutton fat", this natural milky white tremolite nephrite jade 10mm-long hand-carved oval cabochon is prong set on an antique Edwardian-period convertible tiny brooch...
Category
Early 20th Century Chinese Art Nouveau Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Jade, Gilt Metal, White Gold
$2,220 Sale Price
60% Off
Brass Boomerang Necklace
By Oscar De La Renta
Located in Alford, MA
Gold tone necklace composed of boomerang-shaped components in graduated sizes is attributed to Oscar de la Renta, but unmarked. Chain in back is adjustable. Great statement necklace....
Category
Late 20th Century American Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
16thCentury Renaissance Silver Repousse Lovers Pendant Or Engagement Hat Badge
Located in Chicago, IL
This early 16th-Century Renaissance silver-repousse round medallion "lovers" pendant depicts a romantic encounter in a rural landscape between a man and smiling woman wearing Europea...
Category
16th Century French Renaissance Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver, Gilt Metal
ModernArtist SilverWire Geometric Spirals HandmadeWithPliers Seven Link Bracelet
Located in Chicago, IL
This modern one-of-a-kind geometric-spirals seven-link bracelet was expertly handmade from silver wire dating to the 20th Century in a style not earlier than Art Deco. There are no marks or jewelry techniques other than from the pliers used to bend the wire into the seven differently-shaped links. If not by mid-century artist Alexander Calder, it is in the style of his thousands of pieces of plier-bent wire jewelry that were astonishingly all unique.
This attractive bracelet with atypical three-dimensional pieces would have been reproduced if it had been created by a jewelry designer. While a variety of geometric shapes are often combined in wire bracelets...
Category
20th Century Unknown Modern Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver, Base Metal
Givenchy 1976TheMet Signed GG Logo GiltBarPendant SnakeChain TwoTone Choker
By Givenchy
Located in Chicago, IL
From the same 1976 collection by Hubert de Givenchy (1927-2018) as this metallic necklace, TheMet acquired a similar design (accession 1984.598.41). Without the rhinestones of the mu...
Category
1970s American Contemporary Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gilt Metal, Gold, Silver
MiriamHaskell WWII PurpleGlassFlowers GoldLeaves WiredPlasticBack Pre1945 Brooch
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
Beginning in 1939, Miriam Haskell asked her first costume-jewelry designer Frank Hess to spare the use of metal during WWII while war materials were needed in the United States. So t...
Category
1940s American Baroque Revival Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Mixed Metal
Couture CocoChanelEra SignedFrance Gripoix Poured Glass Robert Goosens Earrings
By Maison Gripoix for Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
This couture glass pair of mid-century, gold-gilt metal, faux-pearl-and-turquoise clip earrings are both stamped "France" on their convex ear-pads, which is characteristic of one-of-a-kind designs commissioned by Parisian couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel before a brand signature was added to her costume jewelry around 1955. The construction matches unsigned poured-glass prong-set cabochon, prong-set crystal, and wired faux-pearl jewelry...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Art Deco Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Turquoise, Pearl, Gold, Gilt Metal
DaumNancyFrance ArtDeco Signed Glass Applications LeadCrystal Sculptural Vase
By Daum
Located in Chicago, IL
Art glass vase sign: Daum Nancy France. Evidenced by this Daum sculptural colorless blown and hot-shaped lead-crystal heavy vessel vase, the finest irreproducible artistic works in the history of the iconic French decorative-glass maker feature ornamental thick glass applications. Its most in-demand pieces today were made between 1925 and 1935, with very few major ArtDeco-period pieces remaining in private hands and even less without damage. As a significant gift acquired from Don Jacques Daum in 1950, a similarly shaped, constructed and sized circa-1925 vase with "stylized foliage" motif is in the collection of the French Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris as Inventory #36309. A later-produced vase with a similar application-motif at just the rim, but in a "Champagne" bubbled style, is among the photos in the published book about the Leo and Irina Esterkin acquisitions from 1910-1940 titled Daum Art Deco Glass--A Private Collection.
On our prime-condition antique vase, applied transparent glass is styled in high relief into a flowing undulating motif that evolved from Daum's Art Nouveau foliage designs. The angular and curvilinear shapes of this vessel epitomize the bold vases, bowls and sculptures for which Daum is best known. Its tiny pencil-etched signature on the side near the bottom reads "Daum (plus the Lorraine-cross symbol) Nancy France", which resembles some published signatures since 1925.
Revealing how ahead of its time this particular design was--after WWII in 1945 coinciding with the revitalization of the French glass industry--Daum used...
Category
1920s French Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal
HenrySchreiner Early Set ProngSet Crystal Silver Spray Tiered Earrings & Brooch
By Henry Schreiner
Located in Chicago, IL
Henry Schreiner, the Austrian-born blacksmith founder of Schreiner in New York in 1932, handcrafted this demi-parure of prong-set colorless crystal stylized-foliage sprays after he b...
Category
1940s American Victorian Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Diamond, Rhodium, Silver
Black Tahitian Pearl Dutch DroogDesign 1998 Unique Third Nipple Gold Disk Brooch
By Artistian Made
Located in Chicago, IL
In the 1990s when the Dutch collective Droog introduced international leaders of late 20th-Century functional art such as Ron Arad, Marcel Wanders, Jurgen Bey, Hella Jongerius, and Tejo Remy, the Netherlands-based brand was one of the most successful producers of conceptual design. The collaboration was co-founded in 1993 in Amsterdam by the jewelry and product designer Gijs Bakker (b. 1942), who commissioned his protege French artist Frederic Braham in 1998 to create this one-of-a-kind brooch for his young Droog-represented jewelry line "Chi ha paura...?". The Italian phrase means "who is afraid of?".
This natural satin-lustre South Sea black-Tahitian 15 x 10 mm baroque thick-nacred pearl, which is bezel-set in oxidized sterling on a sharp silver stud for push-back fastening as a lapel or tie pin, is surrounded by a removable textured gold disk brooch with the Chiapaura maker's mark, artist's signature, abbreviated year and assay symbol. Notably, while farmed pearls from this French-Polynesian region are scarce, it is rarer to find one over 12mm. This dark gray one is also exceptional for its desirable secondary tone of peacock green with minimal surface imperfections.
From normal use, the unseen back of the disk is missing chips of ecru enamel where it contacts the fastening knob. This reveals that the disk is solid gold.
Like other functional conceptual design represented by Droog, the brooch is more than a beautiful piece of fine jewelry featuring multiple contrasting elements, as it could be a provocative "third nipple" if worn on a tie or scarf. Given the Dutch origin of the brand, we recall the famous 15th-Century oil-painting by Johannes Vermeer, known as "Girl with a Pearl Earring". Who is afraid of girl or boy with a third nipple?
We acquired this brooch from a jewelry collector who had purchased it from the Italian gallery...
Category
1990s Dutch Artist Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Black Pearl, South Sea Pearl, Pearl, Gold, Silver, Mixed Metal, Sterling...
Antique France Fruit Lampwork Carved Glass Beads TuttiFrutti Brass Clip Earrings
Located in Chicago, IL
These antique early-20th-Century French carved lampwork glass bead earrings depict berries and leaves. On each earring, this fruit salad dangles on a single ring that drops from a round convex green "stem", which is attached to miniature brass clips...
Category
Early 20th Century French Artisan Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass
ArtDeco c1925 Bakelite TriColor RedBlueGreen Carved Ribbon Bow BrassPin Brooch
Located in Chicago, IL
Antique ArtDeco-period Bakelite rare three-color ribbon bow hand-blended-and-carved brooch. Given the colors, narrow style, texture and affixed brass pin...
Category
1920s Unknown Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass
Dolce & Gabbana 1999 RunwayAccessory Silk Rosette Flower Cufflink Or Boutonniere
By Dolce & Gabbana
Located in Chicago, IL
Dolce & Gabbana featured silk-rose jewelry like this versatile pale-peach seven-inch-diameter accessory on many of the runway looks from the design-duo's Spring/Summer 2000 collection (see photo). The rose is a signature motif of this pair of Italian designers, while the Dolce & Gabbana brand tag is sewn to the back of this piece that was "Made in Italy" in 1999.
The unusual "cufflink" hardware on the back of the faux rose enables it to be secured through a buttonhole or as a pendant for a necklace, neckerchief, or narrow belt...
Category
1990s Italian Romantic Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Base Metal
Antique ArtNouveau Austria Scheid RareMark Pave BlueZircon Silver Snake Brooch
By Georg Adam Scheid
Located in Chicago, IL
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 busines...
Category
Early 20th Century Austrian Victorian Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Aquamarine, Diamond, Sapphire, Zircon, Silver, Sterling Silver
MiriamHaskell Early SignatureGrapeCluster GlassPearl 1920s Pendant Necklace
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
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...
Category
1920s American Baroque Revival Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Pearl, Silver
Couture ChristianLacroixParis SilkSatin RareBlackLacquerTop OversizedEvening Bag
By Christian Lacroix Paris
Located in Chicago, IL
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 ...
Category
1980s French Artisan Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
MiriamHaskell 1930s Shells Russian Gilt Filagree BrassFlora WoodLeaf Clip Brooch
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
This early Miriam Haskell lacquered-shell and brass-and-wood-decorated clip brooch was created by Frank Hess, her first designer since 1926. The c.1930 brooch features three seashell...
Category
1930s American Baroque Revival Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gold, Base Metal, Brass, Gilt Metal
$1,036 Sale Price
65% Off
Antique FabergeStyle 3AquamarineCabochons 4GreyDiamonds BezelSet WhiteGold Pin
Located in Chicago, IL
This antique Victorian white-gold bar-brooch or tie-pin from the Edwardian period with Faberge-style elements features bezel settings with three square-cut 10mm sugarloaf aquamarine ...
Category
Early 1900s European Edwardian Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Diamond, Aquamarine, Black Diamond, White Gold
Modernist BertoiaStyle Kinetic Silver 8Bead SpiralWire 3Band Asymmetric MensRing
Located in Chicago, IL
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-worker 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...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modernist Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver
$2,340 Sale Price
35% Off
Vintage Navajo Modern BezelSetOnyx GoldFilledTop DoubleSilverBand Solitaire Ring
By Navajo
Located in Chicago, IL
This vintage Navajo modern minimalist solitaire two-finger ring, which was handmade by an unknown Native American, features a sterling-bezel-set black onyx cabochon on one end of a linear-textured yellow gold-filled asymmetrical flat narrow top, which will span nearly three fingers over a soldered silver double band. One band is US-size 8, the larger one is 8.5.
On the underside of the flat top, the zigzag mark of a lightning/bolt or snake/serpent may be an individual artist or that of a Native American trading post, which acquired such jewelry when members of the community pawned pieces when in need of goods or credit. Old Pawn jewelry...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Onyx, Yellow Gold, Sterling Silver, 14k Gold
ArtDeco 1927-1936 Mazer Faux Citrine GrayDiamond Stylized Heart GiltLinkBracelet
By Joseph Mazer
Located in Chicago, IL
Signed with the earliest "Mazer Bros" signature on the colorless-crystal-decorated silver metal clasp, Joseph Mazer designed this Art-Deco period gold-gilt s...
Category
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Citrine, Crystal, Black Diamond, Gilt Metal, Gold, Silver
Carolee Pearl/Rhinestone Chandelier Earrings
Located in Alford, MA
Dramatic, long Carolee clip-on chandelier earrings, the domed earpieces with pave rhinestones suspending by links a gold metal lobed crown capping twelve strands of small pearls, the strands of varying lengths. Each strand terminates with a rhinestone rondel and black jet faceted bead. the 4 1/2" length skims the shoulder and provides a glamorous evening look. Carolee jewelry...
Category
Late 20th Century American Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Pearl
Couture Late1920s ChanelRousseletStyle Pearlescent Pendants SilverChain Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
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 Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel that she introduced in the late 1920s.
Capping Rousselet's signature Art-Deco-period handmade beads, his intricate multi-texture metal tops for these balls resemble organic shapes like the stems of acorns or fruit. In a bib arrangement, the duotone reflective heavy spheres--in black glass, blue-gray enameled galalith, and silver metal--conform to the cleavage 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...
Category
1920s French Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass, Gilt Metal, Silver
$3,780 Sale Price
50% Off
KineticPuppetStringsPinocchio GoldTexturedChainLink3Strand Early20thC. Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
Acquired in The States and 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 unsigned pre-WWII yellow-gold-gilt brass necklace with elegant draping chains features a three-inch-long playful kinetic 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, as the marionette on our necklace wears a lace-like collar resembling 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...
Category
Early 20th Century American Artisan Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal, Brass
Bakelite 1940s CoroCraft GoldGilt & Black Beads "Hugs&Kisses" TwoStrand Necklace
By Corocraft
Located in Chicago, IL
This mid-century like-new Bakelite and yellow-gold-gilt beaded double-strand necklace still sports the CoroCraft pegasus 1940s retail foil-tag as if never worn. As an elegant take on...
Category
1940s American Modern Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
Vendome 1948-55 Crystal Beaded Set Earrings & 3Strand Capped Faux Pearl Necklace
By Vendome
Located in Chicago, IL
Between 1948-1955 this early Vendome crystal set was made for a high-end line by Coro to include a three-strand tricolor beaded necklace with flowe...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Baroque Revival Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Pearl, Crystal, Silver, Base Metal
AncientGreekStyle Sculptural OpenWork BezelSetLapisCabochon Handmade Gold Ring
Located in Chicago, IL
Sold as a vintage ring in Greece, this ancient-style gold-smithed sculptural open-work band features at its raised end a bezel-set lapis cabochon, while the other end of the by-pass ...
Category
20th Century Greek Classical Greek Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Lapis Lazuli, Yellow Gold, Gold, Gilt Metal, Bronze
Artist Modern Sculptural SterlingSilverWire Script Letter H or Acrobat Pendant
Located in Chicago, IL
Like Alexander Calder's handmade wire jewelry since 1929, whose smallest one-of-a-kind sculptural subjects ranged from aerial acrobats and dancers to mono...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Sterling Silver
MiriamHaskell 1926-1929 Shell Glass FauxPearl Crystal Silver Art Deco Sautoir
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
In the late 1920s during the Art-Deco period, this Miriam Haskell white mostly glass-beaded sautoir was created in New York City by her first designer Frank Hess. This uniquely hand-...
Category
1920s American Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Coral, Natural Pearl, Freshwater Pearl, Pearl, Crystal, Silver
1941 ChanelRelevant American Reinad ArtDecoStyle Silver PolkaDot LargeBow Brooch
By Reinad
Located in Chicago, IL
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...
Category
1940s American Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Rhodium, Silver, Base Metal
Otazu Fringe Necklace
By Rodrigo Otazu
Located in Alford, MA
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...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Dutch Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Couture DiorDesigner WesternGermany MaxMuller TealCrystal GoldGilt Textural Ring
By Max Müller Kaufbeuren
Located in Chicago, IL
With an overlapping ring interior and textured exterior like raw silk that matches Christian Dior rings marked "Chr. Dior Germany" from the late-1950s, this bold modernist yellow-gol...
Category
Mid-20th Century German Modernist Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
$1,890 Sale Price
75% Off
AntiqueArtNouveau 1920s RedPouredGlass Czech Neiger BrassFiligree Dangle Brooch
Located in Chicago, IL
In the 1920s in an Art-Nouveau style, Czech costume-jewelry designer Max Neiger created this brass dangle brooch that features three different shapes of ...
Category
1920s Czech Art Nouveau Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass, Mixed Metal
WesternGermany 1950s CherryRed MoldFacetedBead FlowerClasp DoubleStrand Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
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...
Category
1950s German Modern Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gold, Gilt Metal, Mixed Metal
1921 Early ArtDeco SterlingSilver BlackOnyx Marcasite Signed Rectangular Ring
Located in Chicago, IL
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 ...
Category
1920s American Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Marcasite, Onyx, Sterling Silver
HattieCarnegie 1955 Signed Glass Crystal HandWired MixedBead GiltMetal Earrings
By Hattie Carnegie
Located in Chicago, IL
These Hattie Carnegie multicolor glass, crystal and gilt-metal earrings notably include her script last-name signature without copyright symbol that is found on clips produced before...
Category
1950s American Baroque Revival Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Coral, Gold, Brass, Copper, Gilt Metal
Artist1990s Sterling GardenOfTimePendants ForFreshFlowers Jewelers'Werk Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
Created by a gallery-exhibited progressive artist in the 1990s in a way that foreshadowed TheMet museum exhibition "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion", this ingenious signed sterling-silver chain link collar necklace features eight convertible pink-gem-accented pendants that can fasten your own pierceable larger elements, such as fresh flower heads or cut felt. It was initially acquired in the late 1990s from the U.S. avant-garde modern jewelry exhibition space Jewelers' Werk based in Washington D.C., which is printed on the included original black box with gold text. The versatile necklace that fastens with a handcrafted filigree floral clasp enables the wearer to choose from a wide variety of objects that can be pierced by the removable prong-set sparkly fuschia studs--from felt balls to folded origami paper--to attach to the likewise removable oxidized sterling cups.
The perhaps morganite or crystal studs, whose silver ends are not visible after affixing such objects, can be mixed or interchanged with your own earring stud(s) or dangling pieces to enable more movement when worn.
As shown in photos, a buyer can avoid the contact of such interchangeable objects with long hair by removing studded cups towards the back of the neck, whereby symmetrical sterling-stud fasteners that serve to link the chain necklace will discreetly remain. If the collector would like to use all of the sterling cups that surround the neck, one of their studs is missing its crystal, which can be replaced if entirely pink stones are preferred.
We photographed the necklace populated with fresh and dehydrating daisy heads, which slowly wilt or dry while worn. With inspiration from TheMet current museum exhibition featuring beautiful contemporary clothes designed to show the passage of time, along with some of its archived fragile fashion based on the fiction-inspired theme "The Garden Of Time...
Category
1990s American Artisan Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Morganite, Sterling Silver
Vendome GiltLeavesBranch GoldFilagree Handwired BlackGlass Crystals ClipEarrings
By Vendome
Located in Chicago, IL
These post-WWII Vendome hand-wired clip earrings each feature a spray of yellow-gold gilt-metal leaves with a stylized branch and five prong-set clear crystals among a cluster of fac...
Category
1940s American Modern Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
Antique ArtNouveau European FauxLampwork Glass Flora CherryBlossom Long Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
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...
Category
1920s Austrian Art Nouveau Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver
MiriamHaskell WWII FrankHess Layered Rhodoid & Crystal Montee Climber Earrings
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
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...
Category
1940s American Modern Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Mixed Metal
Trifari PhilippeMidCentury GoldParure TasselEarrings & CrystalDiamanteLinkCollar
By Alfred Philippe for Trifari
Located in Chicago, IL
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,...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Art Deco Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Gold, Base Metal, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
Antique ArtDeco French LampworkGlass GalalithFans SilverRondelles Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
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,...
Category
1920s French Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Rock Crystal, Silver, Sterling Silver
ArtDeco Marcasite&Pyrite Sparkly SterlingSilver Geometric Filigree WideBand Ring
Located in Chicago, IL
Encrusted with mixed-cut pyrite and marcasite stones for gold and silver reflections, this extremely-sparkly double-rimmed wide thick sterling-silver ring was designed by an artisan ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Art Deco Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Marcasite, Pyrite, Sterling Silver
MiriamHaskell 1926-1939 Crystal. Glass Galalith Beads GoldGilt WireCoil Bracelet
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
This Miriam Haskell (1899-1981) brass-wire wrap coil bracelet that features handcrafted peacock-colored beads and decorative gold-gilt brass was created by her first designer Frank H...
Category
Early 20th Century American Baroque Revival Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Brass, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
Antique ArtDeco French ArtPlasticSet BlackSphereMotif CrystalEarrings CoilBangle
Located in Chicago, IL
In the Art-Deco period when geometric, monotone and sparkly designs became fashionable, leading Paris-based couture designer Elsa Schiaparellli set trends with her artistic use of new plastic resins in bold costume jewelry. The progressive French style is exemplified by this unsigned antique black sphere-motif pair of a coiled bangle bracelet and two-tier crystal earrings. The heat-set curvilinear plastic, along with the silver screw-hardware of the earrings, date the set to no earlier than the 1920s and no later than 1930s.
Each inch-diameter earring features 18 black molded bezels containing brilliant rose-cut crystals, while their filigree-like concealed black frames are riveted in back where they twist-fasten with very thin silver hardware. The rhinestones rise above the bezels to maximize their sparkle in rainbow colors, which is accentuated by the stacked frames...
Category
Early 20th Century French Art Deco Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Silver
Couture 1920s French HandCarved Dogs Hounds Galalith RedPaintedArtPlastic Brooch
Located in Chicago, IL
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 wolfhounds, greyhounds or wh...
Category
1920s French Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass
Julianna Delizza&Elster AuroraBorealisEncrusted Chunky Gunmetal SixLink Bracelet
By Delizza & Elster
Located in Chicago, IL
New York City designers Delizza & Elster created this eye-catching sparkly colorful chunky heavy six-link gunmetal bracelet in the late mid-century. ...
Category
1960s American Baroque Revival Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Base Metal, Copper, Gilt Metal
Bakelite 1930s German ArtDeco GoldRinged Green Ball Pendants ChainLink Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
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...
Category
1930s German Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Yellow Gold, Base Metal, Gilt Metal
Couture Cis Zoltowska Fingerlike ProngSet CrackleGlass RedBalls Silver Earrings
By Countess Cis Zoltowska
Located in Chicago, IL
In the mid-century, Austro-Hungarian Comtesse Cissy Zoltowska designed haute-couture costume jewelry with elements of hand-craftsmanship for some of the leading European houses inclu...
Category
Mid-20th Century European Modern Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver, Mixed Metal
Antique 8 BallCutMoonstones French BelleEpoque GiltFiligree Earrings & Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
This antique French Belle-Epoque-period set incudes eight rare ball-cut moonstones beaded on a delicate gilt choker necklace and wire-hook dangle earrings for pierced ears. The necklace features two 12mm gilt-filigree-capped moonstones with atypical adularescence that glows as a sharply defined wide bluish-white circle below the surface. The pearl-like grayish-white moonstones are among beaded stations of cut-glass crystal that are spaced with tiny gilt balls. The matching earrings each feature a 6mm moonstone like the additional four on the necklace.
The luminous moonstone beads look like quahog-clam pearls...
Category
1910s French Belle Époque Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Moonstone, Brass, Gold, Gilt Metal
HattieCarnegie PostWWII Crystal GoldGiltMesh FlutedBalls Dangle Climber Earrings
By Hattie Carnegie
Located in Chicago, IL
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...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Baroque Revival Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Gold, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold, Gold Plate
Antique RareVenetian ArchimedeSegusoStyle HandblownGlass Links Pendants Necklace
By Archimede Seguso
Located in Chicago, IL
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 Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel worked...
Category
19th Century Italian Artisan Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass
Swedish 1990s Silver Signed Pia Wallen Black Wool Felt Discs Link Bracelet
By Artistian Made
Located in Chicago, IL
Swedish artist Pia Wallen made this modern bold black overlapping-discs link bracelet from her signature thick
100%-wool felt, which is assembled with silver round hardware for interior snap closure at the one signed "PW". Like Surrealist-artist Meret Oppenheimer's famous use of fur on a bracelet interior for Elsa Schiaparelli, Wallen's snug sheep-hair cuff...
Category
1990s Swedish Modern Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver
1994 Smithsonian ModernArt LavaRock Sparkling SterlingSilver Eye Shaped Brooch
By Contemporary
Located in Chicago, IL
Like the pendant collected by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, this bezel-set lava rock was handcrafted as a modern sterling silver brooch by studio-artist Joan Parcher...
Category
1990s American Artist Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Other, Sterling Silver
$940 Sale Price
60% Off
Vendome Emerald and Lime Crystal Brooch and Earrings
Located in Alford, MA
Vendome semi-parure of dome-shaped brooch and clip-on earrings composed of large round green crystals, each surrounded by small lime-colored crystals in a floral manner, and each wit...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Emerald
Vendome Pink Bead and Crystal Semi-Parure
Located in Alford, MA
What fun! Vendome c.1960s necklace and earrings composed of hot pink beaded spheres alternating with pink crystal rondeles. The double-strand necklace fits c...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Vintage Pierced Rhinestone Earrings
Located in Alford, MA
Rhinestone dangle earrings for pierced ears featuring five rows of sequentially curved stones at top and three free hanging rows at bottom, each row composed of round rhinestones ter...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Vintage Necklace with Pierced Medallion and Pearls
Located in Alford, MA
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 ...
Category
20th Century American Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Vogue Large Crystal/Gold Drop Earrings
Located in Alford, MA
Large and dramatic earrings by Vogue Jewelry of triangular shape and composed of large round and marquise crystals in a gold tone setting, each stone...
Category
Mid-20th Century Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal
