Featured Total mystery for me, unknown material Art Nouveau pendant.

This "thing" appealed me, even if it is NOT the carved clarified tinted horn I tend to collect in Art nouveau pieces.
The sellers pics showed the crackles and shiny colored varnish, as well as the old resinous blob which hold the suspension eyelet in place.
Plus... it was only 1.4£
Very light weight for its size of 7.5 by 6cm or 2.7/8" by 2.1/4"
I thought it represented a butterfly, but on the pics, with those repierced holes it now looks like a maleficient
Lacking a part of bottom right, some minor cracks needed a kyratisation... to be seen on my "cosmetic repairs aka kyratisations" thread
It is shown now with my mounting on a brown thread as a long necklace, with an old crazed amber bead and 2 cut crystal cubes.

 

the back looks like an oyster mushroom.......but....

 

This is one of the strangest things I've seen. Looks like it did not come into being specifically to be a jewellery element. Do you see any sign it was ever liquid? Any smell or taste? I can't even decide if I think it's organic or man made. Maybe it's shellac.

 

No idea! The blob holding the eyelet is old hard resin, it was the only way to hold it! Piercing such a thin brittle material wouldn't have been a durable way for that.

It is very thin and dimensional, the butterfly detaches from the back, has holes with sharp edges, very difficult to catch in pics!


No taste... no smell...
If it was made from a once liquid stuff, it wouldn't show such sharp, thin ridges and edges
I didn't even dare to wash it (yes, put my tongue on that not cleaned evil face )
I indeed think it is 1900s in the taste of Elisabeth Bonte and Amalric Walter pieces with insects and leaves.
Later some createurs worked in resins/man made experimental materials, which didn't aged very well.

A big true mystery

 

Completely? Or just partially? Is the material flexible? The butterfly is only on the back because someone decided to slap the bail on to that side. I would have made it the front. The darker material in the Y shape looks like structural support. That side looks like fungus on bark, not that I don't appreciate the beauty of fungus. Your surmise about an experimental material may have to stand as the explanation for now. Until someone who knows exactly what it is comes along.

 

Okay, this one can not be an on-line show n' tell. You are going to have to ship it to @Bronwen so she can inspect it closely. Then she will ship it to the next person on the list, etc., etc., etc. Once everyone has gotten to inspect it the last person will send it back to you.

You should get it back in about a year or so.

 

Definitely what's needed.

Maybe some kind of amber formation, where the sap dripped down & took an impression of the bark (or the fungus!)?

 

Oh! I see I mislead you...

what I call the butterfly is the dark Y shape what you think is the support!!! This is semi detached from the background

The back, I see NOW a rounded butterfly! No, this face can’t be the front, it has no added colors, is rough and kind of unfinished.

Not flexible at all, it would break if bent, that’s why I added some resin on lower left back, as I could hear crackling sounds when I held it to grind the repair outline

At deepest, in center with the semi detached dark butterfly, it is approximate 5mm deep.
Looks like parchment varnished, with a spiky texture you find inside marrow bones

Excellent suggestion Peggy! Or, as Barnum in golden ages, I could go on tour all over the world with my « monster » for exhibitions

 

That looks more like a butterfly to me today than it did yesterday. My lepidopteran friend looks more like a moth.

 

I have had this reaction to so very many things that I have been shown here, not just jewelry but in just about every section. I just want to be able to hold them for just a few minutes to feel the texture or the smoothness or the weight or just to gaze at it & take in the beauty of the piece.

That is why I love working at the auction house. I have gotten to see & to hold so many wonderful piece over the years. They may not have come home with me, but for a few minutes I got to experience them.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could have a chain of parcels safely traveling around the world with our precious items so that others could get to see them in person.

 

Call me crazy, but it's reminding me of fish bone/cartilage structures.... It's vaguely familiar, but isn't from a stingray or shark.

 

yer crazy.....

 

You’re not crazy I tought too about fish gills! But no odor

 

It's a real mystery you've got on your hands, that's the one thing we do know for sure!

 

An Amber prehistoric bug

 

That's fish cartilage, that is.