Chrome & Red Glass Necklace 1950s

At first glance, this necklace appears purely decorative, a dramatic rosette of deep red stones suspended from a silver toned chain. Look closer and it becomes something more complex: a Mid 20th century conversation with the 19th century.
The clustered circular pendant directly recalls late Victorian Bohemian garnet jewellery. In the 1800s, tightly packed pyrope garnets were arranged in pomegranate formations, symbols of abundance, passion and sentiment. These pieces were typically set in gilt tombac or low carat gold, their warm metal enhancing the depth of the stones.
Here, that same floral vocabulary reappears, but translated.
The garnets are no longer garnets.
They are precision cut red glass.
The warm gilded setting is gone.
In its place is bright chrome plating, cool, reflective, industrial.
This shift in material tells a larger story.
By the 1950s, Europe was rebuilding. Jewellery production increasingly relied on industrial methods, machine made chains, commercial rhinestone rondelles and modern electroplating. Chrome, a material associated with automobiles, machinery and modern architecture, enters a form once rooted in romantic historicism.
The result is not imitation but reinterpretation.
The rosette remains Victorian in origin.
The symmetry and controlled repetition evoke Art Deco structure.
The materials speak unmistakably of post war industry.
This necklace sits at the intersection of revival and modernism. It asks subtle questions:
What happens when memory is translated through new technology?
When ornament survives but material changes?
When romance is reframed through industry?
The articulated drops move freely, mechanically engineered rather than hand set. The chain is uniform and precise. The sparkle comes not from mined stone but from glass shaped by machine.
And yet the emotional effect remains.
This is not a reproduction of the 19th century.
It is the 1950s remembering it through chrome, symmetry and export ready craftsmanship.
Unsigned and likely produced in Europe, the necklace reflects a broader post war revival aesthetic, a desire to reconnect with decorative pasts while embracing modern manufacturing.
To view it only as an accessory would be to miss its layered narrative.
It is ornament, yes, but also translation.
History refracted through Glass.
 
Faceted red glass, chrome plated metal and rhinestones
Ref: B312