Chrome and Green Glass Beads Necklace
VN657FB40
A stunning example of Jakob Bengel design in chrome and moss green matt glass beads on a delicate etched diamond shaped panel chrome chain, with lace filigree metal spacers.
The metal is in good period condition, the necklace measures 43cms (17 inches) and has the original bolt ring clasp.
Jakob Bengel was a chain and costume jewellery factory, founded by Jakob Bengel in 1873 in Idar-Oberstein Germany. Little is known about the life of Jakob Bengel himself, and his legacy remains his remarkable forward-looking jewellery designs.
Until 1920, the company specialised in the production of watch chains and chatelaines (pendants for pocket watches). In the 1920s and 1930s, it became one of the leading manufacturers of fashion jewellery in the Art Deco style. It was during the Bauhaus and Art Deco period that designers were looking to obtain new materials and inspiration to produce costume jewellery, and this was when Bengel came into his own.
Inspired by French Avant-Garde and other fashion trendsetters such as Coco Channel, Bengel started to produce experimental jewellery. The pieces, catalogued 1924–1939, combined brass and chrome with geometric shapes of coloured galalith, an early thermoset plastic, which was derived from dairy products but had the property to be both moulded or carved and embossed, making it ideal in jewellery design.
The use of galalith diminished during World War II, when milk products were used for consumption, rather than plastics manufacture. His work is some of the best of the Art Deco period and certainly he was years ahead in his designs.
To buy this Necklace for £75
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