This VERY unique seriously long glass necklace dates from the late 1930s or early 1940s. I honestly doubt there is another necklace like this one in existence. I've scoured the internet since 1985 and I know Ive never seen another one like it.
The lemon-yellow glass blown beads were made in the Gablonz / Czech region and are extremely uncommon old beads - if not rare. Yellow and opalescent glass beads from this region made close to a century ago are almost impossible to find today.
You might ask, Why? The answer is simple. Things were not mass produced back then like they are today! Beads were made in very limited quantities - sometimes only a few dozen or maybe a hundred. Then, they just didn't make them anymore and moved on to making other types of beads.
Each bead is individually hand wired by brass wire looped on each side of every bead. Why is that important to note? It means that the necklace was a very time consuming process to make, in order to protect the beads. Each and every bead has it's own wire with loops on each side. It not only makes the necklace super strong, but if one loop should come loose because it gets yanked on, all of the rest of the beads on the long strand are not in danger of coming apart an flying into oblivion. No beads can ever be lost. All you have to do it fix the loop you yanked out of wack!
This style of necklace making - individual looped wires on every bead - is a hallmark of old world quality craftsmanship that many collectors fail to acknowledge. It is one of the ways in which to determine the age of the necklace.
And my goodness,behold, the necklace is an incredible 53" long ! There are repeating sections of 5 mm opalescent white milk glass molded beads. These are very old opalescent glass beads that are semitransparent - not like later milk glass that is bright white and opaque. Those beads are very key in determining the origin of the necklace!
The yellow beads are handmade twisted irregular shapes of tubes and pears and range from 5/8" to 3/4" long. The gold beads are 8 mm metal beads with imprinted floral patterns in 24 kt gold gilt. The rare yellow glass beads are definitive Czech or Gablonz!
Some of the gold beads have some very light wear but all of the other beads are perfect with no chips, cracks, or lack of shine. There is one pear shape yellow bead that has a slight edge rough spot - not a chip - just how it was made. There is some aged verdigris patina to some of the brass wire loops. They have been cleaned but there are still some old minor residue.
Comes gift wrapped and shipped in a new presentation jewelry box.