Posted 7 years ago
Mochairou
(1 item)
I have had this for so long, I don't remember where it came from. I think it belonged to my grandmother. I'm trying to identify the vintage and the plastic. I know it's not bakelite because it makes a high-note snippy click when I lightly tap the beads together. The closure/clasp is beautiful and makes me think of Gatsby-esque era. Am I right? The beads are "curbed noodle shaped" and the curb is not identical from bead to bead which makes me wonder if making of beads was less than 100% mechanical? Also, there are tiny tiny air bubbles in some of the beads. I'm pretty sure a metal tube runs through the beads, because the "cord" is a metal wire. The "spacers" between the beads are not sealed to the beads. There are no markings anywhere! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Oh, so many questions!
1) why do you think beads are missing?
2) what are "long 2 fused beads"?
3) what makes you think the necklace was restrung? (To my knowledge, it wasn't. Unless it was way before my time.)
4) can you guess or determine the material? is it lucite?
I would have guessed 30s based on that unusual barrel clasp, the spacers and beads are out of my ken, will let the experts parse this necklace.
Answering my own questions 1) and 2):
You're right! It's asymmetrical! I had never noticed before! The long bead (that had looked Art Deco to me) does not appear at both ends! On the one side were there is only the 1/2 barrel closure, the wire is looped and held down by a detailed tiny "clasp or folding clamp"; on the other side, there is a knot, the long "ArtDeco/Not ArtDeco" bead and then the other 1/2 barrel closure is held to it with a bigger stronger wire... I'm really surprised this could or would mean this is not it's original shape. My grandmother (1923-1992) never had any means, and too many mouths to feed. I can imagine her scraping to buy it or her receiving it as a gift, but she had too many mouths to feed to pay a professional to re-wire it... If that makes any sense...
Ok, feeling really stupid here, but because of the metal tubing through the beads, the tiny air bubbles, and the high-note clickety-click of the beads I'm now thinking the beads might be... glass? It would also explain why the beads are not curbed exactly the same, they could have been "hand curbed"? It would also explain why there hasn't been any kind of discolouration, right?
Because of the spacers I didn't want to do any materials tests. (Any suggestions?)
What would it mean circa-wise, if they are glass beads?
I have a necklace with similar curved beads and they are glass
I could do a photo of my necklace / bracelet set with similar beads later (it might take several days for me as I dont have the necklace with me right now), if you are interested, Mochairou. Maybe experts here can help with that.
BTW, I am from Slovakia (part of former Czechoslovakia), so its possible that your beads are Czech.
That would be great, thanks! I have been looking online (mainly google images search) for similar spacers, or "end bead" and for the glass beads but cannot find it. I found plenty of "glass noodle beads" for sale, but they all have a sharp cut edge, while the edges on mine are rather rounded. So at least I'm pretty sure I can take away the possibility that it's a modern necklace. I wish I knew more about glass necklaces (like when, where and for whom they were made), but I will keep researching. What are the chances the spacers are gold? How can I safely test for gold or gold-plate?
Mochairou, here my necklace / bracelet set
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/224273-necklace-bracelet-glass-curved-beads