c.1900 Antique Silver Plique-à-jour Enamel Natural Garnet Pearl Egyptian Revival Pendant Necklace Maker Mark GK Fine Collectable Jewelry

A stunning, rare and highly collectable antique pendant necklace, handcrafted at the turn of the 20th century in Egyptian revival style , made in silver and marked and tested as such. The pendant drop is designed as symmetrically arranged four lotus flowers adorned with meticulously applied green and peachy-pink plique-a-jour enamel of various shades with faceted genuine deep red garnet in the middle, suspended from chains attached to the round natural garnet cabochon of matching color and finished with lustrous white freshwater pearl drop. The pendant is hanging from an identical silver chain ending with barrel clasp.

The pendant marked "REAL SILVER" and "GK" -for a maker's mark, necklace's barrel clasp marked: SILVER

Comes in excellent antique state, above average for this type of jewelry , minimal appropriate wear to the plique-a jour and gemstones, some patina to silver, barrel clasp in great working order

Size approx: pendant drop is H 1.8" x W 1.65" (4.5 cm x 4.2 cm), faceted garnet is about 8mm x 5mm , garnet cabochon D is ~ 4mm , pearl ~6 mm, chain is about 19 inches (~48 cm) long. Please see photo with ruler for more info

Historic note: Plique-à-jour (French for "letting in daylight") is a vitreous enameling technique used for jewelry, where enamel is applied in cells, similar to cloisonné, but with no backing in the final product, so light can shine through the transparent or translucent enamel. The technique was developed in the Byzantine Empire in 6thcentury AD. It is, in fact, a miniature version of stained-glass and is considered very challenging technically: high time consumption (up to 4 months per item), with a high failure rate.

Thank you for your interest