Where can I find a 35" silver chain?

December 16, 2011 6:00 PM

I recently bought this Art Nouveau aide de memoire. Now I would like to find a very long silver chain to wear it on.

I'm thinking 35" would be just about the right length, though I could go a few inches shorter or longer, and I would like it to be real silver, not plated. Secondhand or new is fine. I'm liking the "bar" style of the short chain it came with, but quite a few styles would work with it. I'm having trouble finding a chain online, probably because of the length. Super shoppers of MeFi, can you suggest online or Toronto-are retailers where I can buy such a chain for say, $50 or under?

posted by orange swan to shopping (7 answers total)

Go to Fire Mountain Gems. Get five feet of your favorite sterling chain for $25. Also get your favorite sterling clasp. Use a pair of wire cutters to make your perfect length of chain, and use a pair of needle nose pliers to put the clasp on the chain. All set.

Alternatively, go to a bead store in Toronto, where they likely sell sterling silver chain by the foot, and get your chain and clasp there.
posted by freshwater at 6:31 PM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fire Mountain Gems is mostly an online store for jewelry-making items, but they do sell a selection of finished chains (chains that are ready to wear). They have nineteen 36" sterling silver chains, and all but six are under $50.
posted by Houstonian at 6:32 PM on December 16, 2011

I've bought things from RioGrande in the past and been very happy. Their website says they have 1500 different chains & necklaces.
posted by gregr at 6:32 PM on December 16, 2011

Have you checked out Arton Beads on Queen St.? I've got several nice Sterling silver chains there for good prices, though I don't know if they are only plated...
posted by Mrs. Rattery at 7:58 PM on December 16, 2011

That is a lovely little necessaire you've got there, and it's so period perfect and great. I love it.

From a previous answer above - I'm guessing are you in Toronto? Try Saint Lawrence Market on a Sunday morning, and talk to the various dealers. They may not have it there if they have it, but would bring it in for you another time. You never know what you'll find.

Or, think about contacting the Toronto Costume Jewellery Club.

Right now it's on a lovely little watch chain, which has value in and of itself. Oh, if only modern clothes accommodated it.... You could add a large clasp that would let you wear it around a belt loop and in a pocket sometimes. Or, find two or three other watch chains of similar proportions and connect them...
posted by peagood at 8:01 PM on December 16, 2011

Sorry - I didn't mean to type necessaire, but I was thinking of where I'd worked with such things: Cynthia Findlay Antiques on King would have vintage sterling chains, many in that length - she has a whole tray to poke through. The prices would be up there, but they'd be the right age. Or, you could use the information you find there, such as the name of the links that you like best, to search around more.
posted by peagood at 5:01 AM on December 17, 2011

I ended up buying a chain at Arton Beads on Queen Street. It seemed best to buy this particular item in person so I could try the aide de memoire on it and make sure they looked right together. I paid $30 for a chain of the exact length I wanted and didn't have a clasp put on it as a chain of this length can just go over my head and then I won't have the clasp turning itself around to the front. The chain is presently rather bright and new-looking in contrast to the aide de memoire, but the sample segment of chain Arton Beads had out was a fairly closely matched tone due to its exposure to air. So I've hung my chain up in the open in order to let it age a little as the sample had.

Can't wait to wear it! Thanks all!
posted by orange swan at 5:55 AM on January 25, 2012 [1 favorite]