Vintage Monet abstract long pendant necklace

Vintage Monet Abstract Long Pendant Necklace

Seventy-seven centimetres of gold that moves like liquid.

Run the chain through your fingers before you look at anything else. It's a snake chain — not links at all, but many small plates set edge to edge so closely that they read as a single continuous tube. No gaps to see through, no interruption anywhere along its length, so the light travels the whole way down without breaking. It's one of the harder chains to make properly: the tolerances have to be exact, and a snake chain made carelessly will kink in one place and never recover. This one, after forty-odd years, still pours through the hand.

At the front, the pendant. Rounded loops folded over and through one another, polished bright, entirely abstract — no stone, no motif to decode, just gold doing something interesting in three dimensions. That was very much the thinking of the years it comes from, and it's why the shape still reads as modern rather than dated.

About the mark. Near the clasp there's a small oval tag, and stamped into it: MONET. That little tag carries more history than its size suggests. Monet was among the very first costume jewellery houses to sign its work consistently — from 1927 onward, at a time when most of the industry sent pieces into the world anonymous. The brothers Michael and Joseph Chernow founded the firm in Providence, Rhode Island, making gold-plated monograms for handbags before turning to jewellery, and in 1934 they brought in Edmond Granville, a designer who had come from Cartier and who went on to set the house's standards for the next thirty-five years. Monet's reputation was never built on a couture name attached to the label. It was built on the metal itself: thick plating, solid construction, chains that outlive their owners. A signature on a piece like this is a house saying it is willing to be held to that.

It weighs 45g, which is exactly the right amount. Enough that the chain hangs straight and stays where you put it rather than riding up through the day, and light enough that you'll stop noticing it by mid-morning.

At 77cm it falls well below the neckline, drawing one long vertical line down the front of whatever you're wearing — the simplest way there is to change the proportion of an outfit. And because a snake chain has no open links, it slides over a fine knit without catching, which is not a small thing.

Wear it over a plain jumper, or against a shirt with the collar open, and let the chain do most of the talking.

Material: Brass, gold metal plating
Brand: Monet (Providence, Rhode Island)
Era: 1970s–80s
Length: 77cm (chain), 6cm (pendant)
Weight: 45g
Marks: Signed MONET on an oval tag near the clasp
Condition: In excellent vintage condition.
Made in, or sourced from: the US (brand hallmark present)

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.

Turning

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.