Featured necklace choker help

Hello all, any ideas on this necklace? clasp signed Laurel
tia

 

The pendant part is Chinese cloisonne, made any time from the mid-1980s on up until now. My guess would be earlier though. No idea on the chain part.

 

I agree, a pretty Chinese cloisonné pendant, put on a ribbon necklace. These pendants were often sold with silk cords, which may have been uncomfortable for a former owner.

 

Laurel Burch is more well known for her cloisonne cat earrings, but given the fact that the cord clasp says "Laurel", I wonder if it's from her. I found some of her earlier creations that were the round puffy pendants, but nothing that was exactly like yours (though I didn't look for long).

Maybe a marriage of sorts as the pendant really does look more like the Chinese pendants you often see.

 

The pendant is definitely Chinese. Laurel Burch never did anything even remotely like it, except for using enamel.

 

• I kinda flipped when I saw this one guys. I don’t post a whole lot as you all have far greater knowledge on most of the questions that get posted here than I do.
  
  I actually know that it IS very early Laurel Burch and I’ll tell you why. I was a budding jewelry designer in the early 70s and Laurel and I both bought elements from a New York importer that she went into partnership with. I thought she and Shashi actually married at some point but regardless, they were a couple. Anyway, we were both buying antique cloisonné sliders from him (among other elements and beads)so the fact that the piece is exactly what we were both using, Shashi was really the only one importing them in NY, and he and Laurel were in a relationship pretty much nails it for me. I’m sure that piece is one of their early collaborations.
  
  I keep waiting to see if one of my pieces ever shows up somewhere. I stopped a woman on the street in the 90s in NY who was wearing one of my necklaces. We had a nice quick chat.
  
  I laugh, as I walked from the business by 1974 as I couldn’t stand sitting home alone all day and stringing by myself. Shashi kept telling me to get people to string for me but I wanted each piece to be unique-pretty stupid right? I got a large order from Bendels and by the time I finished the last piece I was crosseyed and quit. They called me back for a reorder and I told them I couldn’t and that was the end of my business.
  
  What an empire Laurel created. I remember being so shocked when she passed.

 

Nice to see you again, tdc! Missed ya!

 

that is very cool reader did you keep any of your pieces?

 

I could shoot myself-none. I was a stupid hippie kid, newly married to a grad student and bored to death. The marriage only lasted a few years longer than the business. The only pieces I have are from personal occasional stringing much later and nothing like the Bendel’s ones which were made of the most gorgeous antique elements from Shashi and other 70s NY importers.

I can’t believe I never kept any of the cloisonné pieces. Tricia’s is one of the smaller ones but Shashi had antique huge ones also. I made one for Bendel’s in all black that had a huge center one and smaller ones all around separated by small round garnet and larger jade beads. That’s the one I should have kept.

Shashi started making new ones in China when he could no longer get the old ones but it wasn’t the same. The old large ones were spectacular.

I met Shashi when I was a buyer for a museum shop right out of college. I started stringing for them and continued on my own. I blew it. His other clients included not just Laurel but also M & J Savitt, and he once told me that he loved what I did with his pieces the most and the others went on to create empires but I considered myself far too much the artist to be so commercial. What a joke.

When I think about what I threw away, but I had absolutely no business drive.

I’m a poster child for always making the wrong choices but I’m still here and hanging in.

 

Great first-hand history from Reader. I was sitting at home stringing beads during that time, too! We were still getting great costume jewelry, including cloissoné, until 1980 when the Hunt brothers tried to run the silver market.

Speaking only from memory and nothing I've seen lately, that mesh chain was very popular along with silk cord.

I have some great tutorials on the Appraise-it-yourself page of my website at Specialty Appraisals

 

Thank you for the information Reader, much appreciated. do you have any pics of your jewelry? I'd love to see some of your pieces..
Tricia

 

Thanks so much! Missed being here. Check your messages.

 

I kept nothing and the pieces I made for myself are rough and tribal and don’t have anything in common with my Bendel’s pieces which I’d describe as Ethnic Ladies Who Lunch. Just picture those vintage discs double strung w garnets caught by a single jade, repeated with another disc etc. They were very pretty. I did versions of the same with Berber enamel eggs, coral and bloodstone, etc.