Found my late grandmothers hidden pearls in an old jewelry box

[Sarahes]

Hi everyone! I recently stumbled upon my grandmothers old jewelry box and discovered a few very small strings of pearls. Two have a rose hue while one a lovely ivory (and sadly broken) I believe the rose ones clasps are also real gold, but can’t make out the small engraving on the side. I also those may be natural because of the shape irregularity but I’m sure that’s unlikely. Any insight would be really appreciated. Really happy to have something of hers to wear but need to know their worth to be safe. Also will take better photos tomorrow in day light to show the luster more accurately

 

[Pearl Dreams]

How lovely to have pearls that belonged to your grandmother!

While it's true that the pearls are a bit irregular in shape, I am still inclined to think they are just earlier Chinese freshwater pearls.
• the clasps are common, inexpensive filigree fish hooks
• the pearls are attached to the clasps with bead tips instead of the better finishing method of a loop of French wire /"gimp"
• the silver Bali spacers and crystals in the broken necklace are modern and lower end.
• the pearls in each necklace are very similar in color and not very different in size.

None of this changes their sentimental value, and I urge you to consider restringing them and wearing them. It's not hard-- many of us restring our own necklaces. You could use the opportunity to change the style of the necklaces, if you like-- for example, making a two-strand necklace with the rosier ones-- or a single, long necklace.

If you think you'd like to restring them yourself, you can find tutorials and videos on our Lowly Beaders Club.

 

[Gemandpearlover]

The luster looks very nice in your pictures. How wonderful that you have pearls from your Grandmother that you can restring and wear. Besides stringing tutorials on this forum there are some threads on pearl care and cleaning if you are interested.

 

[cmd2014]

Many grandmother’s pearls (including mine) were faux as well. It was much more common in the 1950’s and 60’s. Although yours look like fwp.