Featured Silver bracelet, Germany, 1891-1949

Another piece from my in-laws, this bracelet has obviously been neglected in recent years but looks as though it was worn a lot earlier in its life.

There are two clear marks, .835 and D.R.G.M. (Deutsches Reichsgebrauchsmuster, so 1891-1949), and a very worn mark inside a link (possibly letters?). I can't find any other marks.

The piece as a whole has a certain style but also a 'budget' feel -- as if someone had set themselves the challenge of making as much bracelet as possible out of a relatively small amount of silver. I'm sure there are technical terms for what I'm going to call grid and channel elements, but together they mean you get quite a chunky-looking bracelet (22 mm wide, 2 mm profile, 19 cm long) for just 26g total weight.

Despite this 'budget' aspect, the piece has held together well and the spring on the fastening still functions.

I suspect that our experts will be able to identify and date this easily and rather precisely. Am I right?



Here's that last mark again. I've tried and tried but can't see or photograph it better than this:




Thanks for looking!

 

It is a classic German Art Deco bracelet, 1920s. I love the style.

At the time Germany was in a financial crisis due to having to pay war reparations on top of having to rebuild the country after WW I.
German jewellery manufacturers cut down on the use of precious metals, because their customers could no longer afford it. So they produced lightweight items, but still used their wonderful techniques to make sure the quality was as good as possible.
It was also a time when German designers began to use more non-precious materials in designer jewellery, like aluminium, chrome and galalith.

 

Thank you. (Nice that my "austerity" guess was leading me in the right direction, as that's not always the case!)

 

May well be a Pforzheim maker.

 

Very likely.

 

If I'm allowed a follow-up: what characteristics point towards Pforzheim?

 

Quality fashionable (at the time) mass production, although there are small workshops in Pforzheim too.
Pforzheim is the main jewellery manufacturing town in Germany, though by no means the only one. In Germany, Pforzheim equals jewellery.

 

What she said!

Pforzheim jewellery is almost always very well made, be it precious or costume.

 

I think this style of links were called gate bracelets if I remember right from my mother's description of hers.

 

or gate link bracelet.
and of course Germany was NOT destroyed - not even occupied - in the 1920s...and to place it at Pforzheim is simple name-dropping. and the DRGM numbers were internally used well into the 1950s, even the 1960s, but officially declassified because the US Forces stole all registers they could put their hands on.

 

I have no idea where you got that from, no one mentioned Germany being destroyed or occupied in the 1920s.

No one placed it at Pforzheim, obb said may, which is never an absolute positive.

Correct, it is called a gate link bracelet.

 

"Gate link" is helpful, thank you.

Does something about the piece make you think it might be more recent, Fid?

(As far as I can tell, it doesn't have a number -- just "D.R.G.M." in the same way that products from other countries are/were sometimes labelled as "patent protected" or "patented".)

 

Yes -- I'd been guessing it was the manufacturer's name, but of course it could also be a number. (Or possibly even roman numerals -- maybe a date?)

Useful link, thanks.

 

there were several useful links when I made a resumee for the old ebay discussion boards but I don't find them anymore.
the big problem is as usual that everything is in German.
here a short summary, which tells a bit:
https://www.dpma.de/docs/presse/1/125_jahre_gebrauchsmusterschutz.pdf

 

@Fid , I just re-read the thread and see where you possibly got confused.
The term 'war reparations' is used for the payments the Germans had to make to the countries they invaded, for the damage and losses they caused to those countries. It doesn't mean repairs (in their own country). Think 'Versailles', for the French reparations, much dreaded by the Germans.