Search results

Dreadfully sorry to disappoint, but no Scottish accent,but lots of Scottish vocabulary.So many dialect words are an echo of ancient Celtic,with,believe it or not,some nouns from Persia.There now,a potted language lesson on the pearl forum.We live a short walk from the North Sea,,looking onto the...

I can’t call you Dave,it’s like calling your brain surgeon Kev…I can’t think there’s anyone who’s followed this post who hasn’t learned something new.It’s been a great learning curve.I will hopefully past the X-ray images when I get them,for us all to see what Dave was describing.but thanks to...

Thanks for the clarification.Iv spent an interesting hour with Kunz,but could only discover accounts of saltwater pearl harvests,nothing about freshwater pearls in India .If Dave sees this ,can he give an educated guess if the pearls would have come from elsewhere and been distributed from...

Thank you so much Dave for your insights.For the satisfaction of the folks at Cairncross I will get a dental exraybut will now have to do some home work on pearl production at the time of the British Raj.Please can you tell me when you use the word “ cultural” in reference to pearls,does it have...

Thank you Douglas,the problem I had was the light.specifically too much of it! I got the pearls over the aperture,and I could see perfectly inside with the naked eye( well,let’s be honest here,reading glasses were involved…) But when I tried to capture the image on my iPad I just got blinding...

Dear lagoon Island Dave,you must think me a numpty,saying blithely that I had candled the pearls and they were natural.Iv looked so often at your amazing images,and had a simplistic idea that if every pearl looked different under magnification,that would imply they were naturals,but I realise...

Thanks so much for your input,I will try and candle them and photo them tomorrow.Iv had the pearls for 30 years,and the lady I got them from was an acquaintance,not that make any difference to the pearls authenticity!….

Oh Douglas,you forgot to add “ moans” to your scones and drones,which fitted my last post ( Hope not in reality) perfectly. Well,I decided to email the Cairncross jewellers,and you must be a legend in your own lunchtime!( sorry,life time,dratted spellchecker) I presumed on our email acquaintance...

Thank you for the suggestion Douglas,I checked their web site,and gulped when I saw they have a courier service to collect your goodies called Ferrari( wonder if a real one comes to the house!) and it costs approx.200 dollars for transportation.I think I will try local experts first,the...

Be still my beating heart! There’s probably no way of finding out for sure,but how amazing if they were Scottish.Iv only seen a few images,and they were all of bigger white or brown pearls.Iv had them a while,I bought them from an older Scottish lady who now lives down in England,who said they...

These tiny pearls were originally purchased in Aberdeen Scotland,in the 1920s as a 21st birthday present.The clasp is 18ct gold.How they drilled the holes I just can’t imagine!

What I can see of the flat side are serrations left by whatever was used to cut them,and the texture is granular and looks Matt. Oh dear so much to learn,so little time..

What I can see of the flat side shows serrated lines of whatever was used to cut them in half. .I thought if they were pearls I would be able to see, using a magnifier,the lines that would indicate layers of nacre but this looks matt and granular.Oh dear,so much to learn,so little time!

Thankyou for all your input! I’m inclined to think they are turbo shells,the kind that some of us have been fooled into thinking are Scottish river pearls.Thank goodness the seller accepts returns,and she will be getting them back minus the earwax……

Help please! I bought these earrings from eBay,advertised as mabe pearls.They we’re very dirty.( do you know how much earwax ends up inside settings? Ugh!) However once cleaned,I can see no tell tale line between nacre and filling,but also no concentric rings that would indicate a pearl.Am I...

Pragmatic and practical as always…thank you!

A P.S. on the problem of when to get pearls tested.Being congenitally mean,I’m torn between wanting to know if the pearls are natural,and wondering if I want to pay £100 or more to have them tested.I’m not a seller,but don’t want them to end up in a charity shop when I shuffle off this mortal...

Jeremy thanks for your wow! I wondered,but needed an expert to give their opinion before I opened my big mouth.I had read previously that natural pearls would have a higher grade clasp,18ct gold or platinum,not silver and marcasites.Theyweradvertised as 1930s Art Deco,and I got them for approx $60.

I saw these pearls just 3 minutes before the online auction finished and had a mad moment and bid for them.when I cleaned them up,the clasp and pearls looked considerably brighter!.The pearls seem heavier than other strands I have of comparable length.Iv candled them and every one presents...

Yet another necklace,but a setting and design Iv not seen before.The pearls have a subtle orient that isn’t apparent in the photos.The chain is marked 92.5,and I added a modern strand of akoyas to sho the difference in colour.Any thoughts about dates for this latest addition to my pearl family...