Antique Victorian Slide Bracelet 1880s | 13 Slides Gold, Pearl, Opal, Garnet, Turquoise | Tongue Clasp w/ Safety Chain

A Victorian slide bracelet at its most exuberant — thirteen individually made slides, each a small tableau in its own right, threaded onto a paired-strand chain and secured by a tongue clasp with its original safety chain. Slide bracelets of this era were rarely made as a single commission; they were assembled over time, one slide acquired or gifted at a time, and this example reads as exactly that kind of collected piece. The metal content bears it out: four slides test 9–10k gold, four slides along with the clasp and chain test 14k, one slide is silver, and four are gold filled — a material variety consistent with a bracelet built slide by slide rather than cast as a matched set, and part of what makes assembled slide bracelets a genuine collecting category rather than a compromised one.

The slide motifs move fluidly between the sentimental and the whimsical, as was typical of the period. A crescent moon set with a turquoise cabochon sits beside a heart pierced with a star-set stone; a cluster of faceted garnets gives way to a starburst-centered square holding a cabochon of green glass, a period substitute used deliberately for color and economy rather than as a later alteration. Pearls and opals recur throughout the smaller geometric slides, and a domed oval link is set with a cabochon in a soft pink hue. A turquoise cluster in a quatrefoil form and an engraved bombé link with a faceted garnet round out the run. Backs are plain, with no maker's marks present — not unusual for slides of this kind, where the decorative face was the point and the reverse was left unstamped.

From clasp: 
1. 10k set with garnet, 2. 14k slide, 3. 10k turquoise and seed pearls, 10k turquoise, 14k opal, gold filled heart diamond, gold filled slide with pearls, silver with garnets, 14k two tone, 10k green glass, gold filled crescent moon turquoise, gold filled seed pearls and opals, 9k gold opal slide, 14k pearl slide

Dimensions: 6.75" length x 8 mm wide
Metal: 14k gold + 10k gold + 9k gold + gold filled + silver
Markings: none
Weight: 13 grams
Circa: 1880's