Another string of pearls...and a ring

[SevenOranges]

Hello All
This is my first post here. I love jewelry and began to enjoy looking at it when I inherited some antique pieces. I am not in the industry (financial analyst I'm afraid) so please excuse some naive questions or descriptions!
I have always loved pearls, and in face when offered a ruby necklace or a pearl one, I chose the pearls. This may have been considered rather odd for a male in the family, but no one else was that interested in jewelry so it went unnoticed.
SO here is a picture of it (if I can successfully upload it). The string is short and the Gem Association and Gemological Lab Report that I had done about two years ago says there are 58 pearls. I have never counted them...and that they are all natural.
This string from family history, and let me tell you in India these stories are zealously kept, came from a larger 7 strand necklace that has long been divided between many generations of family members. However I do think one of my Mum's sisters has another string too. Hopefully I will be able to unite them and make a longer silk string. There is no clasp but it is strung in the old Indian fashion. I had them restrung when I got them (before the certification) and had them put knots between the pearls as I heard it was better for them.
The sizes mentioned in the certificate is between 3.7mm the smallest and 8.4mm for the largest. I have to say the lustre of these pearls are beautiful and they glow from across the room. However the colours seem to range from cream to rose overtones. I think you can see this well in the first picture that I took on the white paper. My aunt mentioned that several persons have mentioned that they must be "gulf" pearls, whatever that is supposed to signify, but I do think they meant it as a compliment.
Coming to the ring. This was also from the same source. The pearls look slightly larger, I would say about 10mm and really quite round. Haven't had these tested as yet so who knows, although I do have pics and stories of my great grand-mother wearing the ring. The colour is more darker and golden than the necklace. Should I bother getting it tested as well please?
This seems to be a very knowlegable group so I really look forward to your comments, and also the possibility of buying some more natural pearls matched in colour and hopefully a little larger (10-14mm) to extend the string. Any truly reliable source would be appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[GemGeek]

Wow! Those pearls are breathtaking. No wonder you want them for yourself. I believe that pearls for men are poised for a breakout into the mainstream.

Never part with your pearls, they are a priceless part of your history and you would never be able to replace them. Expect that finding larger natural pearls will be difficult and very expensive. Demand certification from a source you can trust.

Good luck and thanks for posting the photo. Close-ups would be nice...

 

[Caitlin]

Hi
Those are some really high quality natural pearls. They will stand up to a lot of wear. I hope you get them restrung so you can wear them.

So far I have seen strands on our own Josh, the Tahitian pearl farmer, there is a photo of him wearing them- I think it is in the Tucson Gem show 2008 thread. Randy Jackson wore a white pearl choker with about 8-9mm Pearls on tv. And he wore matching stud earrings! Men wore turquoise chokers in the seventies. Most of my favorite baseball players wear chokers of round stones. Probably not pearls- but they could be!

 

[Ashley]

Just sumptuous, lovely, luminous- excellent color on quite a few of those pearls. Oh. I must remind myself to breathe...

I don't need to tell you that you are an extremely lucky heir! Excellent choice

The term Gulf Pearl is directly related to origin and stature. Gulf pearls, or Bahraini Pearls are they are more commonly known, are natural pearls from the Persian or Arabian Gulf, and were widely respected as some of the highest quality natural pearls in the world for quite some time.

Arabian pearl dealers are unusual in that they refuse to this day to deal with any cultured pearl, most especially pearls that have been Bead-Nucleated (consider the Akoya pearl from China and Japan). I know that Caitlin probably knows so much more than I do about this region's pearls and pearling history.

 

[SevenOranges]

Thank you

Thank you

You are all very kind.

I tried to take some other pics, hope this one helps although my little Sony camera is beginning to struggle I can see even with its macro setting. The lustre does not show up as well with the black background though.

I really hope I can find some certified large natural pearls to extend it (although it is long enough easily to fall on my collarbones and I have an 18" neck!). I don't know where to even begin looking. I seem to have absolutely no luck searching on the internet. Particularly in excess of 10mm.

I am so thrilled to be posting here and sharing. Thanks.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Gorgeous pearls! It's especially wonderful that they are family treasures-- I smiled when I read that you have photos of your great grandmother wearing the ring.

As far as having the ring tested and certified, maybe you should, for insurance purposes.

 

[Casey.R]

Lovely pearls! Wow. I would not want to have to choose between antique rubies and antique pearls, tough choice . But the pearls you wound up with are beautiful (and rare).

 

[pattye]

Hi SevenOranges,

Amazing pearls! You have a wonderful and rare treasure! There is a member who has posted under the name "NaturalPearls" (you can look up their contact information under the Members list above) and is from Bahrain, you will find out alot about your pearls if you continue reading under the Natural Pearls thread-----Thank you for the fabulous photos, the ring is gorgeous also!!!!

Pattye
so many pearls, so little time

 

[pearllove]

Breathtaking pearls!! Thank you for sharing them with us.

 

[Heidi]

These are truly beautiful. I love the traditional stringing you had done, too. Thank you for sharing with us.

 

[jerin]

Hi Seven Oranges,

as another member pointed out, there is some other member in Bahrain and you could also try Dr. Tom Stern as well as looking for in India. Many of the gulf pearls went to India and now some of the owners are selling them again.

Then you could look up auction houses as well! Just be prepared to pay premium prices!

The Necklace is lovely and the design of the ring does look rather modern! How nice to know your greatgrandmother had it!

 

[Perle]

SevenOranges,

What a lovely necklace and ring! I am not a professional, but for what it's worth I'd imagine naturals of that size will be quite expensive. If you are in India perhaps one place to inquire is The Gem Palace, Jaipur, to get some idea of availability and pricing. They apparently have served as jewelers to many royal families in India. There was an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York entitled "Treasury of the World: Jeweled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals," for which they created some pieces for sale, though I don't think any of them had natural pearls, unfortunately (www.metmuseum.org).

I read that one of the brothers from The Gem Palace estimated that a string of 3 mm natural Basra pearls (round, good sheen and luster) would range in price from $3,000 to $5,000, and that was about 8 years ago. So I'd imagine that it would be quite something to find naturals in the size you're looking for, and that prices would be steep. (If you find any information on availability and pricing, and don't mind sharing it, I would be very interested to know.)

Again, I'm not in the business, but I would imagine it's very important to deal with a reliable source and have proper certification. Good luck!

Perle

 

[knotty panda]

A beautiful piece, indeed. I'm curious why you are looking for such large, natural pearls. You can extend the piece with small naturals on the ends which will be not only easier to find and match, but not as cost-prohibitive. On the other hand, if money is no object, I wish you the best of luck finding some really large ones.

 

[GemGeek]

He needs big pearls to add some manly heft to the piece!

 

[SevenOranges]

Hehe! It never actually struck me to extend the necklace with smaller pearls at the end! However, now I am very excited to go scope out some pearls for this quest. It does seem like this may turn out of be quite an expensive affair...or shall I say hobby.
My family is in the south of India, and like many Indians I get back a few times a year. It looks like I will have to make it to Jaipur sometime (which is in the northwest), although it would mean having to leave myself in the trust of others, which does make me a little nervous. However, I do know of family friends who may have some old strings, although even in India really good old basra seed pearls are apparently hard to come by, let alone large round(ish) naturals.
Thank you for all the suggestions and I do look forward to reading through all the other posts in this forum.
Am I right in assuming though that single top quality pearls between 10-14mm would still be in the four figures? Perhaps I can collect these one by one....

 

[pattye]

Yes, 10mm roundish top quality would be in the 4 figures probably, but with each .5mm larger the pearl will be incrementally more expensive, 14mm natural would likely be 5 figures-------------

Pattye
so many pearls, so little time-

 

[Ingykiz]

Pearls

Pearls

Beautiful glow from those pearls. It is hard to tell from your photo, but it looks like they have a golden tone to them.

 

[Nerida]

Wow sevenoranges they are magnificent! Thank you for sharing the story of your pearls with us - it's a real treat! Indian culture has the most amazing jewellery - I guess especially around Rajasthan. Maybe you will need to take a special trip up there - watch out for the elephants (oxen, camels) in the street in Jaipur!

PS - I don't think I would put a clasp on it - I think that these pearls speak their story best with the Indian stringing - not sure what others will think. Putting a clasp, particularly a modern one, would perhaps make your strand look more "usual".

 

[jerin]

Hi SevenOranges,

natural pearls in that size category most probably are in 5 or even 6 figures, unfortunately!

 

[Valeria101]

No idea how high in the stratosphere have the prices for largish natural pearls went As far as I understand, 6mm is a sort of threshold for 'large'. Prices can get scary, although single slightly baroque ones are still found here and there (HERE's one and a strand).

It should be way easier to lengthen the strand by adding seed pearl spacers (Look here for an example ) which should be fairly painless, or by adding to the small end if you can find matching pearls (a feat!).

That is, if you want to tamper with perfection The necklace is lovely!


PS. speaking of spacers: there small roundish keshi (cultured, slightly to severely irregular seed pearls w/o nucleus) http://pearlexporting.com/ . Not sure how popular is the idea of mixing such things in a natural strand... but this is an existing practice. It is more likely to find cultured pearls used as the largest in a natural strand, but matching is not very easy since there are no cultured pearls from the same species as yours and the shapes do not quite fit either.