Natural?? Any opinions?

[littlekatiebird]

Hi everyone,

I am going to try to attach a couple of pictures to see what you all think.

My mother has recently given these pearls to me. Here is the history and all that I know about them. These were a present to my mother from her former boss and also family friend. The pearls were given to my mom in the early 70's after her boss went on a trip to Israel, he bought the pearls on that trip. My mom always assumed that the pearls were cultured and thought what a nice gift from her boss. Fast forward a few years I was seven or eight years old and a girlfriend and I were playing dress up and playing with mom's pearls well the strand broke, mom was not to happy. My mom did not have the pearls restrung until 1985. The pearls were dropped off at the jeweler along with another piece that needed to be fixed. When we went to pick up the pearls the jeweler indicated that the pearls were not cultured but natural and that we were fortunate that we chose him to re-string the pearls as other dishonest jewelers would probably have changed out the pearls. We were shocked. We still have the paperwork from that jeweler in which he estimated the value at $3,000, which doesn't seem like a lot based on what I am now seeing, but this was 25 years ago.

Since then both my mom and I have enjoyed wearing the pearls and never did any research on natural pearls until now. Honestly it is hard to wrap my head around that we could possibly have a treasure. I do not have my hopes up.

Last week I dropped off the pearls at GIA to get analyzed. I called for an update today and they are a bit back logged, the results probably won't be in until next week.

The pearls are a creamy color the color is pretty uniform, but there are variances in the shades. The pearls seem well matched but are not perfect spheres, some tend to be slightly oval. I think they are approximately 6mm, there are 64 pearls and the necklace is 19 inches long. There is also a pair of matching earrings. We did not have them analyzed, we will if the strand turns out to be natural.

Any input at all is welcome. Thank you.

 

[laurenb]

Will be interested to hear what you find. That clasp is fantastic!

 

[pattye]

Well, welcome, and lovely pearls!

Great sentimental value, no matter what. A nice strand of Akoya Miki's would have sold for about the appraised price in the 80's. So in the top photo the pearls are shown about double the actual size, and it is just my hunch that they are very round for naturals, more likely cultured, IMO. LOVE the clasp and the little leaf end caps, also that it is a wearable length. I will be most curious also what you find out, and hope it will be declared a strand of naturals.

 

[perlenforum]

I have not much experience with natural pearls, but I have never seen a necklace of natural pearls, where the pearls are so well matched, so much alike in size, shape and colour like yours. So just as Pattye I would assume that they are cultured pearls.

 

[pearlescence]

I'm afraid I agree..I think that jeweller was, either deliberately or through ignorance, bigging up how clever and honest he was.
For one thing, a jeweller knowledgeable enough to know the difference between cultured and natural pearls would know that the only certain way to tell the difference is in the lab.
Could it be that what he really meant was natural as in real as opposed to fakes (Majorca pearls were certainly around then)?

 

[littlekatiebird]

Thanks for your responses...like I said I do not have my hopes up. But based on the history we need to know the facts. I will definitely post the results from GIA.

 

[Mka4972]

I would have to agree that they are cultured pearls not naturals. Great gift from a boss however..

 

[KAC]

I'd suggest not going to the jeweler for pearl advice in the future. You've got a nice strand and I also love the clasp, but they aren't naturals.

 

[KAC]

how's that wendy

 

[pearlescence]

ho ho .......!