Help, Who knows what these are?

[remarkablepearls]

This triple strand of pearls measure from 15" to 17". The clasp is 18K gold (tested), silver and sapphires. Appears to be Edwardian. The strand comes from a lady of means. Her other jewelry blows the mind! The pearls are around 4mm and baroque. [/ATTACH] Can anyone tell me what these pearls are?

 

[pattye]

Remarkable Pearls, welcome,

Those pearls certainly are remarkable! Possibly natural American River freshwater pearls? Mississippi River possibly. In real life are there quite a few pinkish pearls? This necklace probably should be evaluated by GIA, if it haven't been already.

Elizabeth Strack, in PEARLS, writes at length about the Pearl Rush which occurred in the US, primarily rivers of the Mississippi basin, around 1895-early1900's.

Do you know any additional background on the necklace? Purchased in the US?

 

[Caitlin]

I tend to agree with Pattye, partly because I don't see what else it could be except American or possibly Scottish, freshwater pearls. It should be seen by an expert, maybe Norm, aka "Pearlman" can take a look at the photos; he is about as expert as anybody on American freshwaters. He has a huge collection and has seen thousands of them. I'll try to contact him. I just sent him an email

 

[Nora]

Interesting.
My mom bought this necklace (without the FW keshis that were added in order to make it longer) that looks very much alike, in the late 70 ties in Zurich. The pearls are 4.2 - 6.4 mm.
They were quite expensive, but I was never told how much.



To me they looked like FW keshis. What do you think?

 

[pattye]

Hi Nora,

Ah, lovely! Given that time frame perhaps yours are Lake Biwa cultured freshwater pearls from Japan?

 

[Caitlin]

Amazingly similar pearls, but the subject of this thread could not be Biwas, due to the time frame. Unless, of course, they are Biwas. Biwas date to the 1930's and that is over 80 years ago, but not Edwardian. I googled Biwa images which is the link above. What do you think?

 

[pattye]

Caitlin, The Biwa reference was only referring to Nora's lovely pearls, not the OP's, yes, agree the time frame doesn't work for the OP's pearls to be genuine Biwas.

 

[Caitlin]

I am sorry if I did not make it clear- Nora's necklace made me think the other could be from the 30's, not Edwardian and that's why it looks like Biwas- OP said APPEARS to be Edwardian. I think that clasp could easily be 1930's, so I was considering they both could be biwas.

 

[Nora]

Caitlin, to me the pearls in both necklaces look the same.

 

[GemGeek]

They very well may be natural pearls, but as clasps can be switched, you can't be certain without sending them to the lab to get a report. To me they look very much like many naturals I have seen. And I have seen some newer cultured freshwater pearls with the same shapes and coloration. It makes it very hard to be definitive.

It's a lovely piece. To resell it, you can suggest that they might be naturals, but I would be very careful about claiming that they are naturals. And remember that baroque naturals in those tones are nowhere near as valuable as their rounder, whiter bretheren. That said, I happen to particularly like baroques in those brownish shades, but I'm not wild about the clasp. Good find!

 

[knotty panda]

GemGeek had my thoughts, precisely. The clasp may or may not be original. Inasmuch as there is no way to test for Biwas, is there a way to differentiate between Scottish, Mississippi River, or any other FW pearl variety? I particularly love Nora's strand with the keishi stations. Coming from Zurich, I think we can rule out Mississippi River pearls on Nora's lovelies.

 

[Caitlin]

After you looked at Strack, I looked at Kunz and if, in both cases, we are looking at pearls more than 120 -150 years old, many rivers in Europe produced fresh water pearls as well as Britain. These countries included Lithuania, and Sweden, Austria, and other countries with rivers running from the alps. Most of the mainland European ones were described as brownish being the most common color.

Kunz specifically said among American freshwaters, the brown ones are worth less because their luster is not as great. It seems the best colors and luster came from the Mississippi and from New York on south to Florida, there were more browns. The pearl rush in America was virtually over by the turn of the 20th century.

Strack also mentions that at the turn of the century,many dealers could still tell the origins of the American freshwater pearls by looking at them. Too bad they didn't have color photography! We seem to have lost a lot of that knowledge, but a few people, like Norm, know more than average.

 

[GemGeek]

I can't find the photo, but I had a wonderful picture of a huge card of pearls that were freshwater baroques that all looked like brownish naturals. Right after I got back from the Tucson gem show, where I took the photo, someone was trying to sell the exact same card of pearls as natural pearls on eBay. They would have gotten away with it if I hadn't produced the pic. It's here somewhere on Pearl Guide, but I can't find it to show you. Very enlightening.

 

[remarkablepearls]

These pearls came from a lady in Miami that had NOTHING but the best of everything. She purchased these pearls from one of the wealthiest most prominent jeweler's in the Miami area. These pearls came from his personal collection. They we old when she bought them. To me they look very similar to these pearls that were sold by Christie's in 2004 marketed as "Unusual Baroque Three Strand Natural Pearl Necklace"

 

[remarkablepearls]

These pearls are lovely but they are definitely more pink than the ones that I own. My strands are champagne, silver, and gold tones. Love the story!

 

[remarkablepearls]

Thank you Caitlin. This was the kind of professional answer that I was looking for. Thank you for emailing Mr. Norm for me.

 

[Caitlin]

You are welcome. I just emailed him again. His name is Norman Lange. from Wisconsin. Strack interviewed him and saw his collection a lot of which is now at the Wisconsin Historical Society somewhere. I think I put up a photo of him with her (Elisabeth Strack) up somewhere. I have to run. I'll check in later.

 

[Caitlin]

These pearls came from a lady in Miami that had NOTHING but the best of everything. She purchased these pearls from one of the wealthiest most prominent jeweler's in the Miami area. These pearls came from his personal collection. They we old when she bought them. To me they look very similar to these pearls that were sold by Christie's in 2004 marketed as "Unusual Baroque Three Strand Natural Pearl Necklace"View attachment 24042

too bad the photo doesn't have better color. There is no doubt in my mind that this one is natural sea pearls. It looks very much like one Ellen Barkin auctioned 5-6 years ago in the variety of colors and shapes. Necklaces like these are lessons in how natural pearls can look!

 

[pattye]

Amazing, fabulous!