antique pearls?

A

applecheek

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I saw this one online,just two pictures and not clear.
the seller said it's 11mm natural white pearls,and 14k gold clasp.
dear expert.please take look the pic and tell me what you think?
 

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The clasp is modern; judging by the size, shape, and luster, my guess would be cultured freshwater pearls. But I'm not an expert.

Sheri
 
They are definitely freshwater
 
If those pearls are 11mm, that necklace is quite long, 50odd pearls. maybe the necklace is tapered? I doubt it, though. I wish the bead counter link were still good....
 
I compaired the clasp to the relative size of the pearls, I don?t think they are more than 9 - 9,5 mm, just as my Exotics are.
 
I don't understand comparing the clasp - it could be an 8mm, 9mm, 10mm...or even 12mm. Those ball clasps are available in lots of sizes - and in gold filled or plate too.
Certainly freshwater. look pretty round in shape and reasonable lustre
Judging by the hand they could be 11mm or thereabouts
 
Regardless of what size the clasp is, it is much too small for the pearls and would be difficult to latch.
 
We have 52 or so pearls on that strand. If the pearls are 11mm X 52 pearls = 572mm or 22" not counting knots. It doesn't look 22" long. I am lousy at math so anyone else want to have a go?

The disappeared-from-the-web bead counter could determine that easily- with and w/o knots.
 
Nice strand of reasonable quality Chinese freshwater pearls... my guess is slightly graduated from 9 through to about 10.5 mm but the hand is the only thing we can judge size against...

I would guess that the seller is using 'natural' in this instance to clarify that the pearls are not imitation shell based 'pearls'.
 
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This is definitely a strand of about 9.5 to 10mm round white FWs.
Below is a photo of a 11-11.5mm round white nice quality 50 cm long necklace with an 11 mm 14k clasp, just made for a customer.....for comparison. There are about 43 pearls and clasp to make the length of 50 cms...
 

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Amrita,

Those are lovely! And seem to be a good comparison. Your customer will feel like she is wearing South Seas!

Clearly the pearls in question are not antique. Perhaps they meant natural color pearls-------

Applecheek, hopefully you are starting to understand the kind of questions to ask the seller to help you decide if the pearls are a good value.
 
Uh, this seller has more problems than just type of pearls

Uh, this seller has more problems than just type of pearls

While I can't discern pearls as well as most of you, a look at this seller's past auctions also provides an interesting picture.

He/she has sold two exact duplicates of this item in the last month (some 'antique', eh? insert eyeroll at seller).

Same pictures and everything:

click here for one
**sold for $520 -- Yikes

click here for another
**sold for $311 -- Yikes again

They can't be that "antique" if he/she is selling multiples one week after the other, and they all match the exact same picture. That does seem to be a pattern of this seller, however ... that is, selling multiples week after week, yet claiming they're all "antiques". (Use the feedback aggregator at http://www.toolhaus.org/ to see others commenting on this exact same trick.)

--Pearl A
 
It sounds as if this is a case of "previously worn" = "antique". If the seller uses the same picture, you are not even sure what you are getting is what you are seeing.
 
>It sounds as if this is a case of "previously worn" = "antique".

Personally, I doubt that. I'd bet money this is a new item he's buying in bulk.

For these really to have been previously worn (ie. 'estate'), he would have had to have found at least three *duplicate* necklaces, with the exact same mm pearls and the exact same clasp (since he's using the same pictures), all from one or multiple estates. And all within such a short period of time that he could sell them all within one month of each other. Of course, I'm not an estate dealer either, but I don't think that's normal for estates. What's more, based on his feedback from others, he would have had to have had "miraculous coincidences" like this occuring regularly. I don't think *statististics* work that way either. ;)

There are indeed selllers on ebay who sell multiple, identical, new items, one after another so that there's never more than one listed at the same time. I'd say lots and lots of sellers, actually. Based on this seller's pearl listings, as well as comments left by others in his feedback, he does this repeatedly well. He probably actually is an estate dealer who actually does sell 'unique' estate pieces, but who also buys some newer things in bulk and sells them off one at a time. He'd be far from the first to do such a thing.

He just happens to slap the word 'antique' in front of everything, apparently regardless of whether it really is estate, or is an item he's buying new in bulk. (And in all honesty, I don't think 'antique' is even synonymous with 'estate' or 'previously worn', is it? I'd read some time ago that to upstanding estate dealers, 'antique' means at least 100 years old?)
 
And you have got to love this item they have advertised for 99.00 and they have 10 of them, I must be buying wrong...
Click to expand...


What, Imperial doesn't have jawbreaker akoyas? ;)
 
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