Featured Venetian (?) Bead Necklace; Stone Pendant with Bee

I bought this 22 inch necklace today with large glass beads marked Murano Beads (they want to mark everything Murano.) I thought it was quite wonderful, so I thought I would ask your opinions. It is 22 inches long with 5 large (1 inch) beads and some strange beads that have a colored middle and are surrounded by clear glass. It has a toggle clasp. There are no marks that I can see.



The Stone Pendant with a Bee might excite @kyratango. I looked up the KB on the hang tag on the Lang site and got the Krasnow Bros., but I don't think that is right. The chain is part of the necklace rather than separate. It has a heart cut into the back, all the way through to the stone. It does not have a silver mark that I can find, but the hook is an odd shape. I don't know what to make of it. Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This will run into a second post for photos.

 

The stone looks like rhodonite,construction could be artisan/hobbyist. No reason for it to have a silver mark since it is illegal to mark precious metals with a Federal trademark.

 

A modern toggle clasp is usually post 1970 here in Europe. I believe US members use 1980 as a starting date for American pieces. Your toggle clasp looks more recent to me.

I can't tell you if the lovely beads are Murano or not. I am no expert, but something tells me they could be Chinese. But let's wait for people who know far more about glass beads than I do.

As you thought, the KB mark on the rhodonite pendant is not the Krasnow Bros. mark.
Different font, more space between the letters, and I expect the Krasnow Bros. mark to be struck sharper. It is also one punch, whereas the mark on the label of your pendant looks like it was made with two separate punches, a K and a B.

 

Thank you. Tha explains the lack of a mark for something that looks like silver to me. I appreciate you identifying the stone. When I looked it up at first, Rhodonite was the type of stone that came up, but I saw no examples like this. So I was hoping you would weigh in with your superb knowledge of stones. I wonder if the artisan/hobbyist wanted to create a brand, so they hung a jewelry tag and stamped the heart as a trademark.

 

The clasp history is very helpful. I usually avoid pieces with this clasp, as they are always modern. In this case, I tried to resist a couple of times and had them put it back in the case twice.

Let's hope someone has some thoughts about the beads. The blue color is very intense. I know the Chinese do beautiful glass work. Unfortunately, a lot of their pieces are copies of other styles and not original. At first glance, this necklace and the beads look black, but they are really a deep burgundy. They are very well polished, which doesn't show in the pictures.

The separate letter punches were also why I didn't think Krasnow Bros. It was also weird that not a single piece of jewelry came up in my google search of that name though I tried several times.

Thank you very much as always for your insights.

 

It is too pretty to resist.
I always struggle with toggle clasps, especially on necklaces, where I can't see them.

They do have a very long history of glass making, and some types of glass that look like copies, for instance millefiori beads, are traditional in China as well.

Not in my search either.

You're welcome, Kiko.

 

I keep forgetting this bit about the millefiori beads . Most of the Chinese glass that I look at is art glass. It is referential and produced for the mass market. This is such a wrong way of thinking considering the artistic genius in their long history.

 

@Ownedbybear I see you are around. Any thoughts on the beads?

 

Missed this, sorry! Hm. Lovely beads. Sommerso technique with what looks like some aventurine in there, and cased. Might be Italian but there's some beauties made in India and other places.

 

Perfect. Secret Santa directors can not be expected to be two places at once.