Vintage French Jewelry

Q: If they're heavy, they aren't jet. However, if they are 60+ years old, are black, and are faceted, it's likely they are jet glass, which was made in France from around the turn of the century, 1900, until WWII. Jet is fossilized coal and like amber it's very light. It's also very pricey, even in modern beads. Antique jet is even more expensive. Jet glass can also be quite valuable - especially if it's on its original thread, hopefully with paper label still attached. Jet glass was made to fill the demand for jet beads, which were popularized by Queen Victoria of England. She wore jet jewelry to mourn her husband Prince Albert, whom she loved and who died at a relatively young age. The French were the most prolific of "jet glass" beadmakers, and unused strands of their beads can be found on occasion. Many of these beads have odd looking holes, and would look very funny strung as is. That's because these beads were meant to be sewn onto cloth, and never strung. That's the case with roses montees, a flattish faceted bead attached to a metal base with a criss cross type of hole. Nailheads were also meant to be attached to fabric, and I'm sure that there are hundreds of others I don't know about. (Yes, we're reaching the limit of what I know about this type of bead) If the edges are not very sharp, as you say, they are likely fire polished beads. Those are made in a mold, removed from the mold and passed through the fire a second time to smooth and polish the bead. As a result, the cuts lose a bit of their intial sharpness, and they are never as detailed as a machine faceted bead. Fire polished beads are usually attributed to the Czechs, who perfected the art, and have been making such beads near Jablonek for hundreds of years. (In general, they are the least valuable of all the beads I'm talking about here.) As far as value, I'd start by looking at Ebay, and searching through finished auctions for beads that are the same as (or similar to) yours. Knowing what people actually spent for particular beads is a lot more helpful than simply knowing asking prices. A lot of people think that old = tons of money, and put their items on Ebay without doing comparitive research. Fifteen minutes looking at old auctions would be time very well spent, and would give you an idea of the real-world value of your beads. The market for your beads is small and the prospective customers are usually well informed: if you overprice them, they simply won't sell. If Ebay doesn't yield results, I'd start researching "jet beads" and/or "French Jet Glass Beads" on your favorite search engine. Start reading about the history and manufacture of these items. It will lead you to a value that is backed with real knowledge, and you might not want to part with them at all. It might also lead you to people who are in the market for antique beads, and you can give your strands a happy home (and a little cash in your pocket, too). One thing I have noticed is that it is a very, very rare bead that will make the owner rich. Even beads from Ancient Egypt, 4,000 years old, can be had for a suprisingly small outlay (about the price of a dinner for two), or they are in museums and cannot be had for any price. If you have one of the latter, you normally cannot sell it at all - it belongs to its home country's Department of Antiquities. All of the countries with major finds of antiquities regulate their export and sale. (Not likely to be the case with a string of fire polished beads, though) Some modern beads are quite expensive, but that's mainly the cost of the metal: gold or platinum are expensive, and beads made of those materials reflect that, and beads made of gem-quality stones reflect the price of stones as well as the talent of the beadmaker. The Ancient peoples had their little tricks there, too - they often filled forms with pitch (pine resin) and then applied a very, very thin layer of pure gold to a bead, making it look and feel as if it were solid metal. It's not, and it's worth about the same as say, a nice bead coated in gold leaf. I won't even begin to talk about all the fakes used in place of real gemstones, except to say that it's probably more honest now than ever before. Unless your beads are something amazing (say, traceable back to Queen Victoria and you have photos or documentation to prove it), selling them will bring more of a "nice dinner" price than a "let's retire and kick back" price. Come to think of it, even the documented beads from Queen Victoria wouldn't get you much - except a visit from the Feds, who would be _very_ interested in where you got a British national treasure. Any comment about this?

A:I googled "French Jet Glass Beads" and found a few good pics that showed beads that were so identical as to be a bit spooky! The facets are very different (larger w/ softer edges) and the beads aren't round. In some of the pics the reflections showed the same odd facets/shape. Swear I googled before (I did! but without your more specific suggestions! I seriously have given no thought to selling these and resale value would be less than the family value anyway! Though the question from Joe just did bring back my curiosity about them. When they were given to me I photographed them and put them away safely then went on to other beads! The great aunt that these belonged to had several sons in Europe in WWII and I am thinking that possibly they were brought back by one of them. She was an amazing, and very humble, farmer and would never have dreamed of having them made into a necklace.

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