Featured Safety chains on (jade?) cuff links - name for these?

Found this unmarked set earlier today (well, yesterday technically) in a thrift shop. I think they're carved jade, but am not sure about that. Thought that the little safety chain that was on the cuff links was unusual - guess somebody didn't want these to fall off! Trying to find other cuff links with safety chain and finding none ... I must not be calling it by the correct term. The one with the solid back has a broken and repaired stone (I guess the metal backing was there to support the broken glued stone?) Not sure what the metal is ... it had a lot of toning to it, but cleans up nicely with a rouge cloth.

 

Very interesting !
I've never seen the safety catch used that way.
The set looks to me to be bench made by an artist or jeweler..

 

What does the join look like from the side? Can you see the solder line?


Yes jade.
I think someone had the safety chain put on, because they were afraid of loosing one.
I have had jewelers do that for bracelets.

 

Hard to imagine what you'd hook the safety chain onto.

 

A button inside the coat sleeve,there's usually one there.

The carving of the "jade" appears to be very low quality.

 

Take the coat off and bang goes the chain. I suppose you could have a button sewn inside the shirt but this seems obsessive to a pathological degree.

No, wait, I just noticed the little loop on the other cuff link so you can clip the chain onto that.

I still think any man who'd be that fussy would be intolerable.

 

I know a few men who are narcissistic/fussy and they are intolerable.

 

The set includes a tie tack or pin. Don't get me started on ties and their symbolic significance as halters, a symbol of servitude, a handle to be led around by, a badge of bland conformity, lacking only a bell to be fitting for a flock of sheep.

 

It's easier to see the solder line on the unpolished one. Here are both sides. Are these photos showing you what you wished to view?

That's possible. Whenever they were attached, they weren't simply 'slapped on' ... both the chain and the little link to which it attaches are soldered shut.
Thanks for confirming 'jade'.

 

Good to know - Thanks!
Any additional thoughts as to what the poorly carved "jade" actually is?

 

Glad you figured it out yourself while I was sleeping

I imagine that these almost had to be secured by a second person. Not that one ambidextrous individual with great eyesight and loads of patience couldn't do it ... but twice in one night? (because getting them off would nearly be as difficult as attaching them)

 

Tried to attach these myself out of curiosity. Left arm took some time but was able to attach the clasp - no doubt it was easier because I was using a regular shirt and not one with all the additional layers of french cuffs. Right arm ... ha! (I even pulled my arm up the sleeve a bit to get my thumb out through the opening above the cuff for an extra 'helper' to position the cuff link properly) I gave up without successfully getting it secured.
If I were designing these, the spring-ring and chain would have been attached to the end with the jade, because the way it is now - one has to fish the chain through the holes first before inserting the cuff link ... just one more fussy step.

 

In a shop in La Mesa California, near San Diego, long ago I bought a number of jet buttons that had been made into pins with clasps. They were not popular, they were cheap so I bought them for myself and for gifts.
I turned mine into anchors for my irreplaceable pins by adding a chain and replacing any butterfly clasps with the locking ones.

 

After looking at the solder, I think someone had these made from a necklace that may have belonged to someone special. Mother, wife.

The bezel is probably 14K while the back and link to the other side probably is not.

Chinese jade from the 1920s-30s
Scroll down
https://www.google.com/search?q=art...7CYKHVIWDgwQ_AUICSgC&biw=1267&bih=868#imgrc=_

 

Aha! I see what you're saying Stations on a neck chain or even from a bracelet like this one on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fabulous-Vi...t-7-GRADE-A-/291848835891?hash=item43f38bd333

 

Y'know, back then , some folks had butlers to help them dress....
just a thought...

 

Hi Komo,
Real butlers did not dress the boss, he had a valet to do that.
greg

 

I am glad one American knows propriety.

That or too much Downton Abbey.

 

Yes , of course you're right....Valet !!!

I wasn't thinking straight......

Maybe all that bullying I endured as a child !!

 

Ha!!!!!
Well kiss my medicine ball!