Vintage Chain Link Collar Necklace

Vintage Chain Link Collar Necklace

Nineteen rings of gold, and not one of them smooth.

Look closely at a single link. The metal has been worked so that its surface folds and pinches as it travels round — a ripple that rises, flattens, then rises again, never in the same place twice. Nothing here was stamped out and repeated. Each ring was formed, textured and closed by hand, which is why the light behaves differently on every one of them. Turn the necklace and it doesn't flash all at once. It moves in pieces.

That treatment belongs to its decade. Through the 1970s, gold was rarely left polished — it was brushed, crumpled, cast rough, allowed to look like something made rather than something manufactured. Scale went up at the same time. Jewellery stopped being a frame for stones and became a form in its own right, worn as sculpture. This piece was made inside that thinking, by hands that valued the mark of the making.

At 40cm it sits at the base of the throat, and its own weight — 83g — holds it flat there. That weight is part of the experience. You feel it settle when you fasten it, and you're aware of it through the day, the way you're aware of a good coat. It follows the collarbone rather than hanging away from the body.

It asks nothing of the rest of what you wear. A plain knit, an open collar, a white shirt. Put it on and the getting-dressed is finished — there's no second decision to make, no earring to match. Some mornings that's the whole point.

Material: Brass, gold metal plating
Era: 1970s–1980s
Length: 40cm
Weight: 83g
Condition: Slight fading is visible in the gold metal plating. We hope this piece finds someone who reads that as part of the character vintage jewellery carries. In very good vintage condition overall.
Made in, or sourced from: Australia

International Shipping:
All orders are shipped from Japan with tracking.

Asia: Shipping ¥3,800 / approx. 7–10 business days
Australia: Shipping AUD 30 / approx. 7–10 business days
Europe: Shipping €29 / approx. 7–15 business days

Delivery times exclude weekends and Japanese public holidays.
Customs duties or import taxes, if applicable, are the responsibility of the recipient.

Leaves turn. The light goes low and amber. Nothing announces itself — you simply notice, one morning, that the air has changed.

Turning is the autumn chapter of Passage. Four days, four quiet scenes from the weeks when summer lets go, and sixteen pieces drawn from the colours and the air of that shift.

Nothing here is dressed for the season. Some pieces are ornate, some almost plain. They were simply waiting when the light changed, held until now by hands we'll never know.

However you move through these days, we hope something here finds its way to you.