Featured Garnet bracelet, late 1800s?, metal?

Could this be another piece that my great grandfather escaped from Hungary with? All the stones are there and it is rather small, about 6 1/2" or slightly less around the inside.
I've seen a similar one where they called the metal Bohemian 'gold' but it looks a lot like brass. Did it have a gold wash at one time?
The last picture was taken with a flash. Thanks for your help. Patd

 

Beautiful,@patd8643
These old garnet pieces are often vermiel or gold wash over sterling and very desirable (I was shocked to discover!)
Look for 3 row bohemian garnet bangle
Love it
Ebay vvvvv

 

What she said. Bohemian garnet pieces sell handily, not that you'd sell it. I hope someone wears it at least occasionally; that's no nice to hide in a drawer.

 

What a beautiful bracelet Pat

 

Thank you Scout. I'm surprised at the price. Will probably save it for our granddaughter. She was named after her great grandmother who was the daughter of my great grandfather - if that makes sense.
Patd

 

When we came across the necklace below at an estate, my boss just said "Brass." and walked away. Looking them up I found it was in fact old and collectible.

SADLY - In the 60s, I wore a wire strung necklace of raw garnets my Grandaddy Lee had mined circa 1890. I have no idea what happened to them. That's my "one that got away" story for today, @James Conrad !

Maybe they'll turn up in my sister's safe someday... Hmmm.

 

@scoutshouse

Where did he mine the garnets at?

 

I'm not sure - many places off and on from about 1890 through 1910? I have his Sticking Tommys and journals from that period. Below top: 3rd from right, and Below bottom: 4th from right.

He was kind of a Forest Gump of the West. He's on youtube(!), filmed by Edison in 1894 while a Roughrider in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.


Journal entry below from Laramie to Cananea mines. (A "blind": when rounding a corner the conductor can't see the entire train)

 

....

 

Complete with poem:

At the close of the show the next face
A representative of Edison made me a case
Said Martin, I wonder if I could hire
To show your stuff before the Black Maria
A bargain was made a date was set
At the West Orange Depot there you were met
Said Wissard (sic) Edison: I sent for you to ride and rope
Before the Edison (movie) Kinetiscope”

 

Wow patd, gorgeous bangle, and wow scouts, what a story!

'Bohemian gold' or 'garnet gold' is 6k gold, a fineness of .250. It was used for Bohemian made garnet jewellery during the second half of the 19th century.
Even when it was used it was considered below the legal content just about everywhere, and all sorts of fancy names were invented, like joujou gold, and Viertelgold, a German word meaning quarter gold.

Most antique Bohemian made garnet jewellery is either 6k garnet gold, or tombak/tombac, a brass-like alloy. Some is gilded tombak, some is 8k gold, which was legal in some countries, and some is a slightly higher gold fineness.
Whatever metal it is set in, Bohemian garnet jewellery is very desirable. And it is always well-made, regardless of the metal used.

Bohemian garnets were also exported for jewellery manufacture elsewhere.
Britain, Germany and the Netherlands were major Bohemian garnet jewellery manufacturers. That is where most higher fineness gold and vermeil (quality gold plated silver) garnet jewellery was made.
Some was also set in silver, especially in the Netherlands where silver mounted garnets were worn during certain stages of mourning. Mourning jewellery here in NL went from all black (jet, glass), to black and silver, to garnet and silver, to garnet and gold, and on to 'out-of-mourning' jewellery in brighter colours.

Your bracelet is very much in the Bohemian style, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was brought over by your great-grandfather from Hungary. Hungary and Bohemia were both part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Looking at the photos, not having it in hand, I think your bracelet could be tombak. But that is hard to say from a photograph, since 6k is such a low caratage. Testing will be difficult, most store bought testing sets don't test below 10k, and jewellers often can't test for 6k either.
If you have never seen any verdigris on it, it could be 6k Bohemian or garnet gold. Which can also develop verdigris, but not as easily as tombak.
Sorry I can't be more definite.

 

That is fascinating,@Any Jewelry

Yes, I'd agree with that!

At the time, I thought the necklace was from the Netherlands. The owner traveled there a lot and owned some really stunning jewelry, some garnet and other very modern vintage.

Do you think it could have been from there?

 

It doesn't look Dutch, Dutch jewellery of that period is usually rather showy.
It looks Bohemian, and if it is tombak (brass-like) it is.

This is Dutch regional jewellery, made with Bohemian garnets and 18k gold:

 

I'd add in that sometimes, Bohemian garnet pieces include some glass stones. Jablonec wasn't just a mining centre, it was a glass making place.

 

True. I collect Austro-Hungarian jewellery (what don't I collect), which also has a lot of garnets, for obvious reasons. But with Austro-Hungarian, garnets and garnet glass can be used in one and the same piece, just like real turquoise and turquoise glass, pearls and mop. It seems they mainly went for the colour. Sometimes lost gemstones were simply replaced with glass.
So when a new piece comes in I test every stone, if it isn't clearly glass.

Here is one where the garnets are all true garnets, but the central 'pearl' is mop, some of the smaller pearls are real, some not. All stones are original, they just made a mess of things.

 

Scout, that is really interesting. He must have had a very interesting life. How I would have liked to know him. BTW, I still have a betty lamp with the sticking tommy that belonged to another grandfather - before he had the farmhouse wired for electricity. So much history is loss to future generations.
Patd

 

Pat, get a soft old toothbrush with a bit of white vinegar or Windex on those stones, and invest in a Sunshine cloth for the metal. It will look even more lovely.

 

AJ, I think you hit the nail on the head here. I'll look at it more closely. There is not really verdigris...
As I've said, according to the story, each family member there gave him something of value to sell here so he could start a business. He only sold what was necessary and kept the rest. Maybe this was a keeper.

And AJ, WOW on the Dutch garnet pieces.
Patd

 

AJ: your idea of a "mess of things" and mine do not coincide!

 

Are those yours?? And circa?