percent of American costume jewelry was made with Bakelite. At B. Altman, Lord & Taylor and Bergdorf Goodman on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, Bakelite jewelry sold extremely well, but Galalith, which was marketed in the United States under the trade names “Erinoid,” “Karolith” and “Aladdinik,” never played more than a minor role. The biggest U.S. manufacturer of costume jewelry, Cohn & Rosenberger (established in 1901), used Galalith only for a few small lines in the 1930s.

After WWII, German jewelry companies did not return to Galalith; many experimented instead with new synthetic materials such as acrylic and soft plastics. But Bengel did not follow suit. With the death of Ernst Hartenberger in 1951, the company lost its creative dynamo and it returned to its original focus of producing specialty chains — especially for the chain curtains popular in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s for large public buildings — as well as accessories for handbags and costume jewelry in pure metal. Bengel shut down its operations in 1990.

For many years, Bengel Galalith jewelry was forgotten. In the late 1970s, a dealer in military memorabilia somehow acquired hundreds of pieces of jewelry directly from the Bengel company. Soon, jewelry, sample books, company documents and stocks of Galalith began to show up at antique fairs and flea markets in Germany, France and England. Collectors of what was generically termed “Bauhaus jewelry” acquired the vividly colored, beautifully designed chains and pendants. None, however, realized where the jewelry originated since none bore a company mark. Many took the stunningly distinctive pieces for French; they were even referred to in specialist publications as costume jewelry from France.

In 1985, Margarete and Heribert Händel, who had been collecting this type of jewelry, stumbled across a sample book in which they found a postcard addressed to the German consulate general, naming the sender as the Jakob Bengel Company in Idar-Oberstein, thus revealing a clue to the jewelry’s maker. The Händels tracked down descendants of the Bengels, Freya Hartenberger and Karl-Dieter and Christel Braun, who became their direct contacts for inquiries. Over the years, the Händels Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125