Made in Thuringia in the 1950s, this jade glass and crystal necklace features some very unique beads. These beads could easily be underappreciated if the history of the beads was not explained.
The oval smooth glass barrel beads are hand made wound beads designed to imitate the look of precious Jade. It is actually a strange twist of fate that the Germans made jade glass jewelry, imitating the look of Oriental jade jewelry that every woman needed to own. As fate would have it in later decades, the Japanese copied nearly every type of bead made by the Germans.
In 1918, the town of Gablonz in the Icer mountains became part of Czechoslovakia. After the war and all of the German bead makers, who had been making beads there since the mid 1700's, were forced to leave. The Germans attitude was basically: "Fine, if you don't want us here we will go some where else and continue making beads... and we have many new ideas we won't be sharing with you!" The German bead makers went southwest into Bavaria and established the town Neu-Gablonz. It was here, in the 1920-1950 era, that some of the most fascinating beads the world has ever seen were made. This necklace features very experimental Jade glass beads for the 1950s, and they were only made for a few years.
The faceted round crystals are also rather unique as their color is not emerald or peridot, but a rarely seen lovely shade of spring green. Between all the beads and crystals are emerald green handmade glass seed beads.
Made to be front and present, the necklace will hang up above the bust line and is 24" or 61 cm long. The graduated sizes of jade glass beads are 10 mm to 22 mm long. The crystals are 8-9 mm.
The entire necklace is in pristine clean like new condition with no imperfections or flaws. There are no cracks or chips or signs of wear to any of the beads or crystals. For security and longevity, I have restrung this necklace on Acculon, which is teflon coated stainless steel wire. The original 1950s brass barrel clasp is in place and in fine working order.
Comes gift wrapped and shipped in a new luxury presentation necklace box.
