Featured Black beaded collar, Victorian?

You can test a bead by rubbing it on the back of a tile. (Or any unglazed pottery you happen to have.) If it is jet it leaves a black-grey stripe.

Otherwise it is cut glass, which is called 'French jet' but is neither French nor jet. It was usually made in Bohemia.

 

Thanks for the testing tip.

I just tried it on the back of a modern tile without seeing a mark however it's a bit coarse so not sure it would show easily. I'll look around for a few different and smoother unglazed bits and try again! (After I recover a bit now that my dog sitting duties are over)

 

I think the ones in question are glass too. If you look closely at the bead holes under a loupe they won't be drilled. They'll be molded. Dead giveaway.

 

I did my best. My poor eyes even with my loupe can't really see well enough into the bead holes to say for sure but the beads haven't made any marks on the various surfaces I've tried them on so I'm fairly sure they are glass.

Thank you all for your help

 

Just an update. I contacted my sister with some info on the collar and she does think it was her grandmother's and does want it! I am so pleased and thank you all!

As an aside, I was googling her location which is some 2,800 miles from me. Google says I can walk there in 38 days. (No not planning that)

I'm sorry, I'm a good walker but walking 3 mph, 24 hrs a day, that might to true. But humans do need to sleep

 

Wonderful!

Maybe if you book some nice (historic?) inns along the way?

 

Or better yet antique sales?

 

It made me giggle a bit. Probably more realistic would be 10 miles or so a day considering there are mountains, deserts, rivers etc. That's 280 days to me I better get started

 

I think they are jet also. And I agree that I think it was a dress adornment - tacked down and removed for cleaning or when the item was worn out.
The jets make me think Victorian - but the long dangles, and squarish design make me think Deco era.

Cool piece!
Leslie