Vintage Jakob Bengel style Art Deco machine age gold and silver tone stacked cup bead geometric choker necklace

Fabulous necklace from the 1930s which is likely to be from the Jakob Bengel factory. This design uses many of Bengel's characteristic component parts including shiny 'cup' beads and a stacked architectural Art Deco style. I love the alternating shiny gold tone and shiny silver / chrome tone within the beads.

The necklace is a very short choker length of 15 inches, so I have made a 2.5 inch extension chain with a more modern chain and lobster claw clasp. So it can be extended using this chain to sit at any length from 15 up to 17.5 inches, or the chain can be left off. It is in good vintage condition - there is a little rubbing to the gold tone, visible only in the close-up pictures so please look carefully.

Jakob Bengel was a chain and costume jewellery factory, founded by Jakob Bengel in 1873 in Idar-Oberstein, Germany.

Until 1920, the company specialised in the production of watch chains and chatelaines (pendants for pocket watches). In the 1920s and 1930s, it became one of the leading manufacturers of fashion jewellery in the Art Deco style.

It was during the Bauhaus and Art Deco period that designers were looking to obtain new materials and inspiration to produce costume jewellery. Inspired by French Avant-Garde and other fashion trendsetters such as Coco Chanel, Bengel started to produce experimental jewellery. The pieces, catalogued 1924-1939, combined brass and chrome with geometric shapes of coloured galalith.