Dyed or Natural Colour?

[seshanno]

I picked these up recently because the colour has me quite stumped. They're a silvery grey though in some lights they have almost a blueish purple tinge to them and the pearls themselves range between 9.5mm and 11mm. My question is are they dyed? Or is this colour natural? Since the drill holes were not helpful in answering they dye question either way it in this case I thought I'd ask people who have more experience than me.

 

[CortezPearls]

Good morning Seshanno!
Good question. That is an interesting necklace...I see several surface imperfections, the gray color looks like "faded dyed" but hard to say.
Do you have a loupe???
Maybe you can try to pinpoint the loupe on imperfections to see if there is any dye accumulation on them.
Any idea on origin?

 

[seshanno]

None of the imperfections in the pearls show any obvious dye accumulation even under a loupe. On pearls where I would expect to find accumulation like the one that is slightly damaged below there is none, the dark spots you can see are only shadows caused by other imperfections and when the pearl is turned to the light they disappear.

As for idea of origin, unfortunately not, the necklace came with no information. The only thing I can say for certain about the strand's history is that it was obviously restrung at some point and has a silver (925) lobster clasp that may or may not be original to the necklace.

 

[StarryPearl]

I tend to think these are dyed freshwaters. They look gorgeous!

 

[CortezPearls]

These new photos are much better. I can see some things...like a pearl with a good chunk of nacre removed (so, definitively not Akoya), the shape...yes, I agree with StarryPearl : these are freshwater pearls and due to their color I also think they are dyed.
But they are good looking!

 

[BeadersSecret]

Agree they look like fresh water pearls, may have been irradiated rather than dyed. It’s a long standing treatment to obtain Grey/Silver/Black.

 

[CortezPearls]

Yes indeed! And the fact they are irradiated means we don't get to see any "ink deposits" anywhere. Great call BeadersSecret

 

[seshanno]

Thanks! That's the part that I couldn't figure out was how to 'dye' without leaving any of the usual ink spots.