Featured German? amber pendant with double rope chain

Yay! Perfect for summer. Spring too, if springtime in BG is anything like the one we are having currently.

 

Well, here we have had so far unusually cold and rainy spring, but from tomorrow they promise 20-22 Celsius peak temperatures so the weather seems to be getting more natural.

What is it in Holland?

B.t.w. I tried to find a similar item for sale somewhere just to get an idea of its market price (no intention to sell whatsoever) but could not find anything. Maybe I am not good at searching...
Found this:
https://www.etsy.com/de-en/listing/997586922/teardrop-honey-cognac-baltic-amber?ls=a&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=amber+pendant+art+nouveau&ref=sc_gallery-1-1&sts=1&plkey=EuoeQWYZAXTBwZgmssK6_LQnUOd1:LT859b20e9b50899e01ca72df72243c9f597702eff
This is sold as vermeil (gold filled??) and Baltic cognac amber, looks faceted as mine but seams to me much newer and with very different findings. And the price is ..... I doubt it could fetch this price.

Hmm, and this is sold as silver Art Nouveau/Deco (how it can be both??) butterscotch amber and the price is
https://www.etsy.com/de-en/listing/...88:LTd6b03e2c5ca3cfdddbe56aa48c828f4cda31b0b2

Somehow I would expect price range of 60-80 Euro and what I see above baffles me.

 

Sounds like you got the rain we should have had. It has been much too dry here, with warnings of water shortages during the summer.

Yesterday was a beautiful 26 where I am in the south of the Netherlands, but it is a rainy 19 now. For the first time in my life I am happy with the rain, nature needs it, and we have had some huge wildfires. At one time firefighters from four different countries were working very hard trying to control a fire near me. It is under control now. The wind carried the smoke from another fire all the way to England. (Sorry about that England, it was wind from Germany, nothing to do with us.)
The weather is forecast to pick up again on friday.

Vermeil is gold over silver. Usually a thick layer of 18k gold over sterling (925) silver, the best quality of plating there is.

I think that is a trick of the light, it is actually not faceted.

It is brand new. Very beautiful with high quality findings, but not as charming and rare as yours.

It is neither. They say it was made in the 1960s, but I suspect it was later, maybe 1980 or so. The style is Art Nouveau, a style that has been a favourite in Poland for over a century, and they make some beautiful pieces in the AN style. So a classic Polish pendant, beautiful egg yolk amber, but grossly overpriced.

That would be much more realistic.

 

Yes, something like this
I don't mind as the previous couple of years we had dry and hot springs and summers, and consequently water shortages. Last year there were water rationings in several places in BG. This year the information about levels of reservoirs is rather encouraging, at least for now, so hopefully, the problems are over.

Yes, this is definitely worrisome, hope that by the summer things up there will get more normal with the rain and water deposits.

In the recent years we had wildfires, too, and it is really tragic - for the people/their houses but also for the forests. I very much cherish our forests (what is still preserved from them) and am very concerned about wildfires. It is difficult to manage a wildfire, especially during the windy and hot summer days.

Thank you, Any! I am very happy with my finding, will wait for warmer days to put it, now I am still in my goose-down parka, and it will not be visible below it.

Thanks! I also suspected that it is a recent item made in the Art Nouveau fashion. Nice piece, indeed, but for this price ....

 

altough the post is already a few days old, I would like to add the following comments:

• the Amerikaner Doublé is the lowest quality of gilded metal, it is 10-20g pure Gold per kg base metal, usually brass or tombac. It was widely used until the 1960s
• I would date the pendant to the 1930-1950s, it is not Jugendstil.
• The amber pendant is made from so called "Pressbernstein", meaning pressed amber. Pressed amber consists of small pieces of natural amber or amber powder that are fused under high pressure and heat into a uniform block. It is considered the most common imitation of natural amber, but is often allowed to be labeled as “real amber” (echter Bernstein) since it consists of 100% natural resin/amber.
• The Darmstädter variety of the Jugendstil was influenced by the Vienna Secession and not the other was around as written above. The Vienna secession was founded in 1897 and the Darmstädter Kolonie was founded in 1899. The Grandduke of Hessen asked Joseph Maria Olbricht, the architect of the Secession Building, to come to Darmstadt. He was the unofficial leader of the artists' colony and also had the highest salary. Both the geometric variety of the German Jugendstil ("Darmstädter Jugendstil") and the related Austrian secession style have their roots in the English Arts and Crafts movement, esp. the Glasgow School.

 

If you read the posts thorougly, that isn't written anywhere in this thread. In fact Mathildenhöhe was only shown as an example in the photos, without any mention of the dates or history.
That history has been mentioned in other threads, including the link with the Glasgow School of Arts and mention of artists from different countries visiting each other, but again, no one there ever said that the Vienna Secession came later.

 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, MaJa, it is always good to hear different opinions.

On the points raised by you:
1. Ok, good to know I paid 4,5 Euro for it, so I don't really mind the quality of gilded metal.
2. Well, there are some local (of the place where the piece was found) historical circumstances (which you might not be acquainted with) that make it highly improbable to be after 1944. I will not go into details but if we assume that it is from the period of1930s - 1950s, it is most certainly 1930-1944. Based on that it should be classified as Art Deco then.
3. I am not good at spotting the difference between pressed amber and naturally formed amber. I know in theory what to look at but don't feel confident to spot the difference. I looked at the pendant through a magnifying glass and did not see the streaks/sharp layers typical for pressed amber, I rather saw organic, swirling flow lines. but as I said, I am not confident in my ability to spot. In any case, it is not important for me, I don't sell it anyway.
4. Thank you for the remark, it is good to know who was first and who came second