Elegant Opera Length Pearl Necklace With White Gold Diamond Clasp, c. 1975

Mainly due to Coco Chanel's fashion influence, it became socially acceptable to wear long pearl necklaces in opera or even robe length even during the day from the 1930s onwards. But from a jewellery history perspective, another key figure was involved in this previously unthinkable fashion: Japanese Kokichi Mikimoto, who in the 1920s had developed a business-ready process to produce full-round cultured pearls. Previously, it had often taken years of collecting to come up with a necklace of natural pearls of the right size and colour. So this pearl necklace owes its existence equally to Coco Chanel and Kokichi Mikimoto. It has a length of 83.5 cm, which is the so-called opera length: it is hard to imagine how long a lady would have had to wait for the completion of such a necklace in the years around 1900! A total of 99 pearls of creamy white colour are knotted together. At the same time, all the pearls are very well selected, the so-called "matching", selecting pearls of the same shape and colour tone, is very successful. The pearl necklace is held by a quality clasp made of high quality white gold, on which 15 white diamonds are set. The clasp lets us date the necklace to the 1970s. It found its way to us here in Berlin.

Estimate:$1,450.66

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