Item Description
French Pate-de-Verre Jewelry Ensemble by Françoise Montague. In the "mille pattes" (millipede) design, this sets consists of a single strand necklace and one pair of clip-on earrings produced by the French jewelry designer Françoise Montague. The necklace strand is in glass paste beads in the pate-de-verre manner, cut and faceted to resemble gemstones. The colorful faceted beads are in amber, purple, red, blue, and turquoise and are interspersed with larger onyx-tone round carbochon-style beads. The long strand supports nine conforming hanging clusters. The Françoise Montage line was established in the first half of the 20th Century and subsequently designed for the haute couture and for major fashion houses such as Nina Ricci and Frank & Fils. Françoise Montage was acquired in 1978 by Marion Stern who kept the Françoise Montage name. Its small shop is located in a courtyard on the Rue Saint-Honore in Paris and continues to produce classic “couture” style jewelry made of metal, paste, resin, hard stones and paste glass beads. Vintage parts are sometimes used in the design and in some instances a “jewel mistress” is available on site to fill custom designed orders while the customer continues to shop. Hang tag reads “Bijoux/Françoise Montague/Paris” on one side and “Mille Patte/Made in France” on the reverse. A second hang tag reads “Made in France/Paris” on one side and depicts the Françoise Montague logo on the reverse. This retro style ensemble is unused as it was housed in storage for many years. 20th Century.
Necklace: 18” long.
Earrings: 2” x 1”
