Help, inherited pearls - Blue Akoya?

[Fincs]

I have inherited some pearls from my grandmother. She was very fond of jewellery, and was particularly fond of pearls. Of the pearl jewelry, I am most curious about this. I know they were bought in Japan in the 90s. Could it be blue akoya? As you can see, some of the beads are damaged. What does this come from?

 

[jshepherd]

Welcome,

Yes, these are blue akoya pearls. They don't appear to be naturally blue, however. The bead appears to be darkened in some of the close ups, which would indicate it's been treated with Cobalt-60, darkening the nucleus. to create the blue coloration.

The damage you see is peeling around the drill holes. This is common in older akoya, especially off-round.

 

[CortezPearls]

I agree- Those are "blackened" Akoya pearls. My mom's blackened Akoyas became this same hue after a couple of decades of usage.

 

[Fincs]

Thank you for your answers! What would be the best way to tell if they are dyed or natural? Is it the case that if they are dyed the inside is white, while if they are natural they are blue all the way through?

 

[jshepherd]

If the nucleus is dark, it's been treated with radiation - not dyed. The cobalt radiation interacts with the manganese in the freshwater mussel shell bead, turning it dark. If the color of the pearl is natural, the bead will be white.

 

[Fincs]

Thank you, I understand. I will examine the pearls more closely tomorrow. But I agree, then they have probably been treated

 

[Fincs]

I agree- Those are "blackened" Akoya pearls. My mom's blackened Akoyas became this same hue after a couple of decades of usage.

Were your mother's pearls black or very dark when she bought them? I know these were bought as light blue/silver. I do not believe the color has changed much since she bought them.

 

[CortezPearls]

Were your mother's pearls black or very dark when she bought them? I know these were bought as light blue/silver. I do not believe the color has changed much since she bought them.

I remember my mom took her pearls out in 1994, to show them to me since that is when I started in pearl culturing. She had this strand she said was black but looked just like yours.

Hard to say...you know how memory works: oftentimes it just doesn't! Perhaps they had always been that same color, but she remembered them darker. At least that is what she told me. She gave the pearls away to friends when she divorced: they had been presents from my dad, so she did not want these, so she doesn't have the pearls anymore. She only owns Cortez pearls now. Go figure!

Wish she had taken a photo: before/after. Cameras -especially ones with good macro lenses- were not as pervasive as today!

All I can say those pearls had been irradiated, because -just like yours- some of the pearls had cracked and peeled around the drill hole and the bead was darkened with a blueish tint to it.

I had a customer -decades ago!- and she had one really black Akoya pearl necklace, a few pearls had cracked. I could see the blackened bead, but the nacre was also darkened. I found a photo (really lousy one, since my camera back then was a Sony Mavica with 640 pixel resolution (and a floppy disk for storage!) of one of these pearls. Both the nacre and the bead were very black.

I can imagine these pearls were double treated: irradiated (hence the bead is black) and dyed, since the nacre coating was also black. I always wondered about these pearls.