Arts & Crafts Festoon Necklace, Unknown Origin-JCW Hallm

[JoJac]

This Necklace has low grade azurite (I think) and blister pearls. It is enameled. It tests for Coin Silver. No indication of country of Origin. Any help Very Much Appreciated! Thanks for Reading.

[JLDoggett]

It appears to be set with eilatstone (chrysocolla, azurite and malachite, where the chrysocolla adds a certain degree of hardness to the otherwise softer minetals). It was very popular in the late Victorian period and through the 1920's. The upper 2 stones appear to be the more common form of mixed crystal growth, the bottom drop shows the rarer layered, fortification variety. It is still mined today in Israel.

The small pearl appears to be a natural.

The mount appears to be aesthetic movement, dating to around the mid 1890's. The linkage and finish, coupled with the natural on the drop says origional versus a revival reproduction.

[JoJac]

[quote="JoJac"]This Necklace has low grade azurite (I think) and blister pearls. It is enameled. It tests for Coin Silver. No indication of country of Origin. Any help Very Much Appreciated! Thanks for Reading.

[ValkyrieVixen]

I have bought and sold dozens of Eilat pieces and all were marked Israel.
While blue does occur in it it is much more common to find only shades of green, it's frequently mis-identified as Malachite. Your stone looks more like Azurite to me.
This is the research info on Eilat I have in my listings:
The Eilat Stone was found in a copper mine near Eilat, the southernmost city in Israel. The stone is a mix of malachite, turquoise and chrysocolla so the color of the stone a gorgeous swirling deep greens with blues running through it. The Eilat stone is the National stone of Israel, and is also known as the King Solomon Stone. When the waters flooded the mine, the price of copper decreased around the world, it was not economically feasible to continue mining and it was closed. There was only one mine in the world and no more Eilat Stone has been mined for the past 10 years so these are rare stones.

[JoJac]

Thanks very much for your info. I really appreciate it. If anyone knows anything about the hallmark/country of origin, I'd appreciate that info as well.

[JLDoggett]

JoJac is that the only mark on the piece? is there any quality marks? what shows in the picture would be the maker's mark. It is the quality marks which would help identify the country of origin. I always presume that a piece in coin, with just a maker's mark is usually a piece made in the U.S. Many countries with national standards and testing requirements have seperate marks for varying qualities of silver content. These marks should be readily apparent near the maker's mark.

As the piece appears to predate 1948 it would not be marked Israel if it came from the middle-east. Palestine was under Brittish control, but didn't appear to use the the Brittish hall-marking system as found in other Brittish colonies. Brittish and French Palestine were protectorates which appear to have been handled differently from full colony status. Being in coin silver points to an older date than the late 1940's and the birth of the State of Israel.

As for it being Eliat stone, that could only be determined through chemical analysis. As someone who has dealt in hundreds of pieces of judaica and repaired many vintage pieces for collectors I am used to older stones to be mostly blue with green as a secondary colour. The piece I have in my mineral collection is almost pure sky blue with the fortificatin pattern seen in malachite with thin green banding and a small inclusion of chrysocolla. The stones are definatly in the cupreous oxide family.

[JoJac]

Hi JL, Thanks VERY much for your informative response. Unfortunately, there are no other marks. We determined the silver content ourselves by our experience with nitric acid, but we could be off a bit. Meaning the content could be 830 or something. It did not test as strong as sterling, however. That and the Hallmark are all we have to go on, other than the overall look of the piece. Thanks again.