Featured Venetian Glass Beads?

Hello jewelry experts! Found this necklace on facebook and just love the color of it. After browsing this forum for a while I'm finding my interests lie in pottery, anything Korean/oriental, and since I have an obsession with jewelry, why not bring it over into the antique world!

Having said all that, I'm wondering what can be learnt from this necklace? The seller is advertising it as an 1930's Murano glass long bead necklace, and that its 90cm long. What makes it venetian? How can you tell the age based on the style/construction? Anything I can take with me to the next bargain hunt would be greatly appreciated!



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I think they may be newer or restrung.
1950s at the oldest. Looking at the little pearl beads and crystals.

I don't think this would be the correct clasp, but I might be wrong on that.

 

So those crystal and pearl beads were not something that was around before the 50s? I would agree those look modern to me but I wouldn't really know.

What would the correct clasp be? It looks in-keeping with the other beads and the setting of the long blue ones. Wouldn't it be hard to find a clasp of that same color/similarity if its not original?

 

They were, but they wouldn't be arranged in such a way.

It could have been a barrel clasp, but probably a straight model with ribbing. More like this one:


Clasps often get replaced. No major problem, but it affects the value somewhat.

 

Interesting, thank you for that info! Definitely something to look out for when I'm shopping.

 

Beautiful necklace! The larger blue oblong beads look like Venetian/Murano foil glass beads (made with thin pieces of sterling silver foil/leaf inside blue glass). The round blue glass beads look like Venetian/Murano sommerso glass beads – do they have little gold flecks (Aventurine) inside? I'm not sure about the necklace being as old as the 1930s, maybe more like the 1950s, or it could have been restrung at some point with older Venetian glass beads and newer crystal beads -- nearly impossible to say for sure.


Here’s a photo of green sommerso glass beads with Aventurine flecks that I bought at a thrift store several years ago.

 

Thank you for all that information! Unfortunately I cant confirm if they have Aventurine as its not my necklace, I just saw it on Facebook and was curious about it. How can you tell the beads' origin and pinpoint it like that? They just look like beads to me.

Your necklace is just gorgeous! And a very interesting clasp, is your's from the 30s then?

 

Thank you, Rachel, for your comments on my necklace. It could be from the 30s, but I don't know for sure -- barrel clasps were invented in the 1930s, but my necklace could be from the 40s--probably older than the 50s.

Regarding how I can tell the origin of beads, I've learned a lot from this jewelry forum, and also have several books on various categories of vintage and antique jewelry including the different types of clasps/findings used. I spend many many hours googling vintage jewelry until I see something that looks similar to what I've seen or have, then make notes about what it's called, then do further research to find other examples, then do further research to learn how/when/where it was/is made. It also helps that I'm in my 70s and can recognize vintage jewelry that I remember seeing in my younger years.

For a younger person, the more jewelry you can touch and see in person, and the more research you do (including this jewelry forum), the more you'll learn about vintage jewelry. I used to go to a lot of estate sales and antique malls that had vintage jewelry. I still go to thrift stores that sell jewelry and occasionally find a vintage treasure that the pricing person overlooked, but that doesn't happen nearly as often as it used to. Now I'm more likely to find costume jewelry from the 1980s-90s, some of which has become collectible, especially certain designers and funky pieces. I don't know if you're located in the U.S., but if you search "vintage 80s necklace" (or bracelet or earrings, etc.) on eBay for example, then select "sold" and sort from highest to lowest sold prices you may be surprised at what's selling.

 

Wow thank you for such a long and detailed reply! Lots of avenues to explore. Usually we'd be going to carboot sales every weekend but this year they're only just starting to be organised. Tomorrow is the first of the year so I'll be on the look out! I'm in France but the principle would be the same, sounds like a fun down time activity. Thank you again!