Giselle Bracelet
This special bracelet shows off a beautiful amethyst, gold, and silver opal glass cabochon that we think represents the apex of Czech glassworkers' craft. Its makers combined canes of purple and gold glass with tiny pieces of silver foil over a lampworking flame and then hand-pressed the molten glass into an oval mold. We think this is the most beautiful vintage glass opal stone we’ve ever found.
Late nineteenth-century Czech glassmakers were the first to manufacture molds for hand pressing glass buttons and jewelry stones. They started by using solid colored glass and then later, as their trade developed, learned how to manufacture pressed glass imitations of multi-colored gemstones like opals and tortoiseshells.
The second element of this bracelet is a light purple flower stone glass cabochon manufactured by early nineteenth-century Japanese button artisans.
The third element is a hand-dyed pearl button manufactured from Mississippi River mussels by the American Pearl Button Company of Washington in Iowa. A few decades after the button company closed its doors in 1964, the great-grandson of the original owner, decided to sell the remaining stock and we bought it all. We hand-dyed this button on the stovetop in our St. Francisville, Louisiana design studio.
Read about the sweet story of Mighty Mississippi River Pearls on our Buttonology blog.
In this piece, from the lobster clasp:
- Amethyst glass flower stone, hand-pressed in mid-century Japan
- Lampworked and hand-pressed opal cabochon, made in mid-century Czechoslovakia
- Carved Mississippi River mussel shell button hand-dyed by us
- Three brass-plated pewter settings made in the USA
- Two brass leaf stampings made in vintage dies in the USA
- Antiqued brass chain
- Length is 6 ¾” to 8”
Shop the collection: Bracelets
Did you know the biography of Japanese Cherry Brand glass cabochons is steeped in cataclysmic historic events? Read more The Epic Story of Cherry Brand Glass on our Buttonology Blog.