Not many ‘new’ Mystery Jewelry Maker examples have surfaced in recent months, but there have been a few; they include two newfound colorways of the dainty “lotus flower” necklace.
Two shades of the MJM’s favorite blue, on silvertone. Length is 16.25” as are all of this necklace’s colorways.
This russet red version is also new. These two recent discoveries bring the total ‘colorway count’ for this necklace to eight, plus one that is all brass with no paint accents whatsoever. I suspect there may be an all-silvertone version lurking out there somewhere!
This black-and-white colorway is only the fourth version of this choker that I have found; the others were green/green/green, green/green/white, and red/chocolate. It is 16.5” long and 5/8” wide.
I haven’t seen many items using this café-au-lait paint color but there have been a few (there’s also a possibility that this may be their salmon pink color but simply appears duller and darker because of the photography.) This is only the second time that I have found this chevron-on-oval pendant, as well. The flat box chain is 16” long and the pendant section is approximately 2” long and 1” wide. [The other example is in green and on a probably-not-original-MJM chain.]
Here’s a first for the design that began my obsession with the Mystery Jewelry Maker: my mom’s pendant, but here in all brass except for a few black highlights. It also sports a new-to-me chain! The flat rings aren’t newfound (though rarely seen, I admit) and neither is the clasp, but the ‘links’ part certainly is. I’m at a bit of a loss over what to call this chain: “machine age links” perhaps?? The very bright finish makes me wonder if this was a kind of kitchen-sink design made from older and newer findings and chains. It’s also possible that the seller chose to aggressively clean it, because the apparent lack of any verdigris is extremely unlikely otherwise. That said, this is the first time I’ve seen this necklace in the brass finish (the other three examples are on silvertone, and painted) or paired with anything other than two painted small-box chains. This chain is cited as being 15” long, which is an inch shorter than the chain this pendant was typically paired with. The pendant is 2” long x 1.25” wide (not including the bail.)
This is only the second example I have seen of this particular painting pattern; the first was done in purple and green and had a matching bracelet (both seen in the post that includes my 200th example of a Mystery Jewelry Maker piece.) This is a very crisp and clear black on silvertone and no doubt once also had a bracelet to go with it.
Another colorway of the Machine Age front clasp, patterned-mesh necklace… and with a surprise: a new side-piece embossed design!
A little mental gymnastics will bring the two side-piece halves together to form a very pretty pattern of orname concentric circles. This painting pattern of adjacent triangles has been found before but not in this particular combination of green and black. The mesh band is their 3/8” wide version.
This discovery expands my previous chain width/side pieces matchups from two to three:
The first two side pieces have been found in both brass and silvertone, so it’s logical to assume that this third design was made in both finishes as well.
Many thanks to the helpful reader who brought this necklace to my attention!
The next entry falls into the “new discovery, but..” category. It is a necklace (modified) and bracelet (unmodified) that may or may not have been sold as a set.
Let’s consider the necklace first. It is the MJM’s flat mesh in the 5/8” width. Normally, this necklace would have been painted in some way, and/or given either an ornate front clasp or this rear ribbed-box clasp. But this is the first time that I have seen a plain unpainted 5/8” wide mesh necklace with this box clasp. It is 15” long. The central station is not original to the necklace – it is actually a fur clip that someone added to it. By the way, although the photos make these appear silvertone, the seller’s description states that they are brass; flash photography can wash out the color sometimes.
Now for the bracelet. Although the lower photo makes it appear slightly narrower than the necklace, it too uses the same 5/8” wide flat mesh. It is 7.5” long overall. The clasp (the Floral Square Pyramid) is the same one the MJM used on all of their patterned-mesh bracelets and I have actually seen this same bracelet once before, but instead paired with a front-clasp plain-brass necklace:
These two sets show that the Mystery Jewelry Maker did not restrict their flat-mesh necklaces to ‘painted only’, even though the majority of those chains were indeed utilized for that purpose. I have to say, though, that the logic of having a completely plain, unadorned brass mesh choker eludes me just a bit!
My next Mystery Jewelry Maker post will contain a selection of pieces that I’ve dubbed “MJM Oddities!”
If you have any information about this jewelry or photographs of examples that do not yet appear in this blog series, I would be delighted to include them in a future post! Please use the Contact Form on the About the Chatsworth Lady page.
Browse the other posts in this series
Descriptive index of all Mystery Maker jewelry shown in this blog
The Chatsworth Lady 