Featured Stretch (maybe) jet necklace - help please! What is this cord?

I just got this pretty little stretch choker. I am pretty sure the round beads are jet, the oblong ones, seem a bit different, maybe vulcanite? Both pass the scratch test and are rather pure black, but they just seem different. I can’t really see any mold lines but maybe you can. Any thoughts on materials/age is greatly appreciated.

I am really interested in the elastic cord it is on. It is basically black elastic cord that seems old. It can be seen the close up pics. I have always wondered when this kind of thing first came into use in jewellery and how it was fabricated. Google has not helped.

Outside of curiosity and reference, I would love to know if the cord is original to the necklace. I was thinking of taking it apart and adding some old goldstone spacer beads, or something like, to extend it. I am not a choker fan but I love the beads and buy my jewels to wear. Would I be destroying the piece? Besides the length, I worry about the integrity of the elastic.

Any info/advice is appreciated and thanks in advance!

 

Pretty Jet looking Choker.....not that I know much about them at all!! But zero-ed in on the next to last image.....looks like it says something NOT in English....until I reversed the image.....then it sort of looks like English, but it's too blurry an image...just me being curious.....I guess......elastic looks to be fraying.....might want to change if looking to wear it!!!

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Actually, THIS try came out a wee bit better!

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No writing, unfortunately, just the carving and shadows. The cord is actually not that bad - fraying a bit on the ends where it has been doubled back and tied. Still, I don’t quite trust it. And having survived the 90s choker trend I don’t wanna go back. Just need the the guts (or permission) to cut it. In the meantime, my creepy new friend is wearing it...

 

I’ve been calling her Miss Havisham all day. Now I’m afraid she’s gonna cut me in my sleep!

 

Is she made of wax?

 

She could be a wax half doll................

 

What's under her skirt?

 

This is a great question!.
I have some Czech glass panel bead bracelets strung on perished elastic and have often wondered when it was first used.
I also decided that the glass is much too precious to risk on elastic so am trying to come up with an alternative!.
Personally I’d cut and restring but I may be hung up for that. After all we restring antique and vintage pearls and bead necklaces if we have to to make them wearable and secure.

 

I have no idea of the value of your necklace, it could far surpass a wax half doll, but check them out............

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?
_from=R40&_nkw=wax+half+doll&_sacat=326&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

 

You need some unglazed white ceramic, such as the inside of a loo tank lid. Jet will leave a brown smear on it, glass - French Jet - won't.

 

Ummm... hate to say it but jet is not the only "bead" that can leave a brown streak! And yes, these actually sell, mostly up Northern Mid-West US, but they could catch on, right? Right?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/735142...7l38ItOn-QVaCN5JqG7oR-bgz5GMURqkaArxQEALw_wcB

 

Handy that the loo would be close! That did make me laugh, thanks

 

@Owliza

Check out the "Bridezilla"!

 

Sadly, not wax. She’s some sort of plaster or composition with metal arms. She’s a half doll though and was once a lamp. Her cage frame is still there but the lamp guts are gone. She has a triangle mark on the back that the web tells me means she is a Munzerlite doll but I haven’t found anything about that company yet. Your link just took me to the eBay main page .

One more vote for restringing! One of these days I am going to spend some time looking at old catalogs online and see if I can find an earliest reference to stretch elastic jewellery. I feel like I have this come up on an annual basis

Done! Although I was surprised to find our tank lid to be glazed on the underside! Had to use the bottom of a mug. The round beads rubbed off brown and the oblong beads rubbed black.

 

They sell up in Canada too!

 

I'm glad you saw my post and checked her out. Later in the day I'll check out Munzerlite.......................