Featured Necklace... Czech?

Thoughts on this? Choker length, I wondered if the clasp was replaced. The little carnelian colored discs are faceted, they do not seem like glass, more plastic like. Thanks for taking a look.

 

Nice Lucille, it looks Art Deco, Chinese inspired. My first thought would be Czech as well, but I don't know much about costume.
Yes, the clasp looks like a replacement.

 

Check the rings for bakelite, just in case. A q-tip, wet, and dunked in baking soda will do the job. Rub on one of the rings and hold it close to your nose at about the same time. Sniff. The q-tip should turn yellow or brown and you should smell formaldehyde. The color change can be faked out by tobacco smoke, but the smell is the smell. I agree that the clasp came off something else. It's 20 years later than the necklace.

 

Czech would have used glass not plastic as that was their trademark for costume jewelry, they usually marked it as well. Apparently one whole glass plant was dedicated to making export glass and brass jewelry during the 1920-1940 period. Not my era of expertise per say, but information that I have come across recently. Nice necklace, noticed these are very popular right now.

 

Nice piece.

 

Thanks everyone. I appreciate you all taking a look.

Good point about Czech/glass, Toomany. Agreed, often Czech is signed, but frequently on the latch, this latch seems to be replaced--so who knows. Not sure it impacts value one way or the other too much.

On closer inspection, these little rings are not plastic afterall. At first touch they didn't seem like glass, just a bit warmer to the touch is what I noticed so was thinking plastic. Found a small chip in one edge and with a loupe, it is definitely looks like glass or some kind of harder material.

Could they be faceted carnelian?

 

Agate? Sure could. Check for air bubbles carefully.

 

Do you have one of those diamond testers? Carnelian has a hardness of 6.5 - 7, harder than glass.

 

I doubt it's any kind of genuine stone as all the pieces are exactly the same color and density with no variations whatsoever. That is one of the things you look for when you are studying a jewelry piece image to decide what it is.

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For a short while I made some sterling silver and genuine stone jewelry, and carnelian stone was one of my favorites. They sell the new beads on a string, and it's all one piece of carnelian that they have cut into beads, it contains all the variation from pale opaque peach, to dark translucent orange.

This multi strand bead necklace picture displays what I mean very well as they used the whole carnelian range . Most jewelry made with carnelian stones have a main color and shade selection to make it look more consistent.

I feel your necklace has carnelian shaded and faceted molded glass components.

 

You could be right, but on the other hand carnelian is often matched, as in this traditional Dutch necklace (sorry, gold clasp not in the picture):


If matched stones, the next question is, why not silver or gold.
But a diamond tester will tell if it is glass or carnelian.

 

Of course....

 

With brass fittings I'd be betting on glass, but you never know. Back then, carnelian and other agates weren't seen as valuable and weird things happened.

 

That's what I thought, there were combinations of gemstones and non-precious metals.

 

It still turns up in India and Nepal and the like. Costume guys were using semi-precious bits on costume jewelry here well into the 1980s. If you count those 18k HGE rings, it was being done into the 90s. Cameos too.

 

Somewhere, I have a single earring that's late 1800s, early 1900s and it's a single round carnelian donut like these in a sterling setting. I also have a carnelian heart pendant.