1940s Bakelite Carved Red Turtle and Black Leaf Necklace

Bakelite carved red turtle and black leaf necklace on a black celluloid chain, 18" by 1/2" chain and 2-3/4" pendant (45.7 by 1.3 by 7 cm). This one is really rare and very special.

Leo Beakeland (1863 -1944), a Belgian who had moved to America, was the inventor of Bakelite. Made by the condensation of phenol and formaldehyde in the presence of a catalyst and used for everything from tools and telephones to jewellery, "Bakelite" is frequently used as a generic name for all phenol formaldehyde, including Catalin and Marblette, which came later and in a wider range of colors. Bakelite is a thermoset plastic, meaning that once cast or molded and hardened, it will not melt, burn or dissolve. It can only be worked by carving, sawing, tumbling, painting and gluing.

Bakelite jewellery was at its zenith from the late 1920s till the start of WWII in 1942. The Depression era of the 1930s gave the whimsy, colorful and cheerful look of bakelite jewellery the perfect market. The sophisticated Deco and machine age look of some of the pieces made them fashion-forward for their time and timeless for ours.