This super-glitzy crystal bracelet is a retro 1950s design by Ben-Amun (Isaac Manevitz), and it's as head-turning as the best of them in that mid-20th century era.
The bracelet sparkles with a combination of large pale blue and green crystals, and smaller lavender and clear crystals, against a backdrop of antiqued silvertone metal. Though made towards the end of the 20th century, it harks back in design and choice of materials to the great designs during the "Golden Age" of costume jewelry.
Ben-Amun's touch, to me, comes through in the colors. Using four colors, and the particular combination for our bracelet, is a more contemporary take. Many 1950s pieces featured singular colors — two at the most — except when aurora borealis is used. Three pastel hues plus clear is two too many colors for an older-era bracelet.
But on this bracelet, they combine for a powerful fashion statement. The blue and green crystals are cushion-cut and alternate as the focal points of links. They are surrounded by smaller round crystals, clear along the sides, and lavender, in between.
The bracelet's link design itself echoes those of earlier pieces of Trifari dating all the way back to some "KTF" designs in the 1930s, and Eisenberg and Weiss designs in the 1950s. Even the base of the bracelet is similar to 1950s creations.
Another difference with its earlier inspirations though is its longer length (most mid-century bracelets are more "petite"). The bracelet is 7" long plus it has an extra link that extends it an inch. It has a width of 3/4". The bracelet uses the most popular clasp for bracelets during the 1950s, the hidden push-in clasp, of which there are two: one each for the bracelet and the extension link.
The designer's name is also stamped at the base of the links.
7" long + 1" extender link; 3/4" wide