Inherited some jewlery, not sure what kind these are - or if they are real

[JamesJ]

When my grandparents passed my wife and I received the house. Going through the attic I found these in a chest and have no knowledge about pearls - real or fake. So I was hoping for some help here, thanks in advance.

Necklace 1

Necklace 2

Necklace 3

Earrings

And a link to the photobucket album , Here

 

[KarinK]

Hi James and welcome,

The first thing to do is always to either rub a bead/pearl gently against your teeth or two of them against each other. If the feel is gritty it is some kind of pearl. If not, it is not a pearl, and if it still looks like one it's called fake pearls. So if you can do that first, and tell us which ones of your pieces are pearls, we can take it from there

- Karin

 

[JamesJ]

Thank you for the information. From your post and some further reading online it seems like they are all just costume jewelry.

I knew where she kept her normal jewelry, but found these in a locked jewelry box at the bottom of an old chest and as I said earlier didn't know much about pearls. Now though I'm going to have to assume they are simply mementos from when her and my grandfather were much younger.

So while no monetary value, there is sentimental value in them.

Again thank you.

 

[lisa c]

Disclaimer for me, im just learning but, not even earrings 1 or 2 were gritty? I thought maybe pr1 were just poor pearls, in a costume setting, and I liked the luster and glow of pr2, thought they might be tiny freshwater and akoya.

And necklace 1 was just good costume? I felt the reflection of adjacent strands was really nice and clear, but that thought was tempered by the lack of overall luminosity. I wondered if that was because of the surface it was photographed upon...

Well, disappointing, but congratulations on inheriting the house!

 

[pattye]

James,

Necklace 1 looks like the quality is quite good, not peeling, and many are fond of vintage jewelry these days, so I'm glad you recognize the sentimental value. Also the pale blue beads appear to be a vintage glass, perhaps Italian, and could be mixed with some moderately priced cultured freshwater pearls (keeping with the same theme) to make a lovely new necklace and earring set. Looks like there are about 24 beads.

Thanks for sharing your find!

 

[lisa c]

Folks here are such good teachers! Pattye reminded me to focus the totality of the 'picture', to not get hung up on only one aspect of it. She reminded me that the shapes and colors were too uniform to likely be real pearls, aside from the tooth gritty feeling test.

She inspired me to dig out some old Majorca pearls and inspect them. Sure enough they had the truly amazing strand-on-strand reflection of necklace 1 above, without the deep reflective luster of real pearls, again like necklace 1.

So again, gratitude for the excellent teaching available on this site!