Featured Amber Beads Necklace

Beads are kind of in a bad shape and one has slipped away. Is this a fairly new method of securing beads?

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/244393...wjw_nzLGPM5PX0iD4NAe2ECbdatLtbLgaArlHEALw_wcB
I personally do not think it is new, but it doesn't seem the most secure way to do it.

 

I've 1920s wire wrapped stuff like that. That amber has been bashed about a bit.

 

Not a new method at all, it was already used in Antiquity. I agree, the amber has condition issues.

 

In 1990 when I operated a weekend stall in a local antiques mall I was often visited by people with something to sell. One day a 30+ couple with a heavy Russian accent showed me a lot of assorted amber jewelry, pendants, bracelets, earrings.

They explained that they had brought it with them from Russia and that the origin of the jewelry was Polish, crafted in Poland from amber found on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

I am familiar with this type amber as it was often brought back by Swedish tourists who visited the Baltic states on vacation, including my own sister who owned some.

This amber is not considered old but when the Amber Craze struck the Western countries in the late 1980s, amber jewelry suddenly became red hot. Many with a little chemistry know-how got into it and plastic was often combined in the mix with not-so antique bugs, spiders, beetles, incorporated to make it appear prehistoric [Think Jurassic Park]. The amber was often not genuine amber either but a version of it called Copal (look it up), mostly found in the Caribbean.

The jewelry shown here is of the type that this couple showed me. It had a certain Bohemian attraction but was crudely wrought, poorly finished, unfortunately. Clasps were crude handwrought hooks, even on bracelets, not very wearable.

Savvy Western fashion wearers do not care to have sharp unfinished edges on pendants and chains catch on their expensive sweaters, blouses. This jewelry had. Also, original holes, cracks and chips in the amber stones were included, even to the point of gaping in the sides of oval and round pendants.

Jewelry has but one primary function: It must be attractive for anyone to want to desire it. It if it's not attractive, well made, wearable as executed, it's not desirable. Not even if it's of a material like amber, or bakelite, or any other flavor-of-the-moment material.

Noting the poor workmanship and crude amber in the pieces I passed on the offering. However, I do believe that this Baltic amber jewelry is still floating around in the U.S. and elsewhere. Pehaps it has a certain attraction as a collectible by now with age and history added as most of it came in after the fall of the Evil Empire. As for its attractiveness as jewelry I still reserve my opinion.

 

Baltic metal wire and amber jewellery is generally from Latvia, where it is a centuries old tradition in folk jewellery.
Whether kard's necklace is Latvian I couldn't say. The quality of Latvian amber is generally good, and I have never seen Latvian or other Baltic amber in this deplorable condition.

In defence of Polish jewellery, it is generally beautifully made and the abundantly used silver is properly marked. Many Polish jewellery makers have continued the Art Nouveau style to this day, with luscious swirls and flowers. Some people confuse it with Art Nouveau-inspired Navajo jewellery.
Detail of one of my Polish necklaces. This is a fairly simple one, but it is the only one I have on file at the moment:


@Ownedbybear , maybe you have a photo of a nicer example from your Hoard to show the excellent quality of Polish jewellery making?

The amber craze started when China opened up to the 'free world', and Chinese began to buy amber like mad. Fake bug amber is often made in China.
Here in northern Europe, amber has been popular since pre-history.

The manufacture of faux amber is an old tradition, think 19th century celluloid and other early plastics.
And mixes of amber and other materials were already made over a century ago in Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad), the capital of Baltic amber mining and processing.

This is one of my Yemeni necklaces, made with pressed faux and Baltic amber mix beads made ca 1900 in Königsberg/Kaliningrad:


Other Baltic countries have also experimented with amber mixes and faux amber.
For instance, the GDR was home of the well-known Fischland jewellery, and amber was essential for its manufacture. But in the early 70s the sourcing of amber on East Germany's Baltic coast had all but stopped, and relations with Baltic neighbour Poland were not good, so Polish amber was no option. GDR scientists developed an amber-coloured polyester-amber mix called Polybern, which is now collectible in its own right.
One of my early 70s Fischland silver and polybern pendants:

 

That's NICE. I'd bag one of those Fishland pieces too if it ever showed up, real amber or not. The prices have dropped off enough that it wouldn't make much difference price-wise.

 

Awesome