Natural Bahraini Pearls

[Valeria101]

I have removed 500 of her posts, but still have 1,000 to go........

Ugh... maybe we should just never mention: otherwise you'll never finish wiping the traces. Hard to forget that one.

Interesting that Strack never checked her Arabic refs.

 

[Caitlin]

That's why I tried to avoid using her name. I think she is a bit befuddled by the elephant pearl thing as well. She describes them as ivorylike, but some of the photos I've seen (including one on the mustapha bezoar place didn't look like ivory at all. Another fellow says they are from blood clots. (Can't remember if that was on or off the forum)

 

[SteveM]

Interesting that Strack never checked her Arabic refs.

Could be the translation from German to English, but as the traditional terminology appears to be more a result of general usage than regulation, there could be a range of interpretations among the pearl merchants. Certainly this is the case in the wine business, particularly Sherry, where books on the subject differ notoriously according to which producer(s) were visited by the author during their research.

Reem?

 

[NaturalPearls]

Actually "marjan" would mean coral in Arabic. But in some texts, they use the word to mean small pearls, possibly seed pearls.

Is the same Arabic spoken in Bahrain and Iraq? That could account for discrepancies.

Slraep

yes the Arabic spoken here is the same as Iraq.. I will have to ask my Iraqi friend and get back to you!! but Marjan(corals) and pearls are always linked together in many Arabic text and song lyrics. If I remember correctly, theres a verse in the holy Quran that talks about pearls and murjan.

 

[NaturalPearls]

Clearly she had plenty of time on her hands! Back to pearls that speak for themselves?Reem's grandfather's pearls are worth reposting (reframed) so they don't get buried down the thread?

haha thanks for reposting the pic, it looks much nicer without the book and the scale, etc
I will post some more pictures tomorrow morning!

 

[NaturalPearls]

caitlin: whats the pearl of Allah you are talking about?? and who a zeide? strack?

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Reem

The Pearl of Allah is a clam pearl from the Philippines that weighs 14 lbs. Clam pearls of that size are grotesque. They are not nacreous. The story of this clam pearl has been exagerated and fraudulent in many details. We wrote an article about it. Check "In the News" at your upper left. there is aslo a thread by that name in which you can see the story unfolding.

Zeide is a con artist who used this forum for her own ends until she confessed and left about a year ago. She lied and didn't give credit to Strack when she quoted her.

Elisabeth Strack wrote what is the most complete textbook on pearls so far.It is called "Pearls" It was published in German, then translated to English. LINK About $115 US, plus shipping.

 

[NaturalPearls]

Most Famous Pearl in Bahrain

Most Famous Pearl in Bahrain

There is an article on the right about the famous pearls; I guess you missed one of them. It was found in Bahrain in the beginning of the 1930s, a perfect round white with pink and red shade pearl, we call ?Mshayar?, which is a very rare color. The weight of pearl was 12.4 Ct. It was sold on another Bahraini businessman for 70,000 rubeya ($18520), while the price of a house at that time was between 300 ? 500 rubeya ( $79 ? $133). And then a Saudi businessman bought it for 120000 rubeya ($31746), and then from Saudi Arabia to Leonard Rosenthal in France, who was known as the king of pearls, he bought the pearl for 250000 rubeya ($66138). And finally a girl from Texas bought it for 550000 rubeya ($145502). Then in 1938 she came to Bahrain hoping to find a pair but it was more like a dream, so she headed to India hoping that this dream will come true, but unfortunately I don?t think anyone would be able to find a pair for such a nice pearl.

We used to have one of the most beautiful pearl necklaces in the world, 74 white pearls with red shade (Mshayer). It took my grandfather 14 years to collect pearls for this lovely necklace (from 1975 till 1989), when the 70s were known to be one of the best years for pearl collectors. So imagine how long it will take to complete such a necklace nowadays, when we weren?t able to find one single pearl in this color since the early 90s.

 

[GemGeek]

Great story. I hope you'll post often.

 

[Slraep]

What an interesting post, Reem!! It's great to get some inside info on the mysterious world of natural pearls.

When you say the pearl was reddish, you mean white with rose/reddish overtone, right? Can you give a comparison to something?

You will find this story very funny---Zeide Erskine claimed to have bought a few FIRE RED coloured natural pearls in Bahrain(she has never even been near Bahrain!!) which took her 25 years to find other matching ones in order to make the necklace below.

Slraep

 

[NaturalPearls]

What an interesting post, Reem!! It's great to get some inside info on the mysterious world of natural pearls.

When you say the pearl was reddish, you mean white with rose/reddish overtone, right? Can you give a comparison to something?

You will find this story very funny---Zeide Erskine claimed to have bought a few FIRE RED coloured natural pearls in Bahrain(she has never even been near Bahrain!!) which took her 25 years to find other matching ones in order to make a necklace.

Slraep

FIRE RED! heheheh good one! why did you guys ask for a picture of that lovely pearl!
And about the color of the pearl, i've attached a picture of the pearl necklace we used to have, not a very good one though, but you can see the red shade in the pearls.

 

[Slraep]

FIRE RED! heheheh good one! why did you guys ask for a picture of that lovely pearl!

Okay Reem, I found a pic of Zeide's FIRE RED pearls and uploaded it into my previous post.

Slraep

 

[NaturalPearls]

25 years to complete this necklace?? I think I can complete it in 25 minutes, just incase another zeide joins the forum, if they say they got it from Bahrain then ask for the lab report right away!!

 

[Slraep]

Originally Posted by NaturalPearl

25 years to complete this necklace?? I think I can complete it in 25 minutes, just incase another zeide joins the forum, if they say they got it from Bahrain then ask for the lab report right away!!

We did ask her for the lab report(Caitlin and I)!! She said she couldn't find it because it was in a box of papers somewhere among the junk in her garage! I asked her who the dealer was in Bahrain that sold her the original few but she couldn't answer that either. It was "curtains" for her soon after that......it wasn't funny at the time, but looking back, it's very funny now!

25 minutes? Hehehehheh. Here are some old forum post from Zeide that I kept in my file, just for amusement. Oops, I made a mistake, it was 24 yrs she was collecting. Funniest is her imaginary "travel expense".

The color is natural and typical for this very rare and just about
extinct mussel from the infamous travelling lake Lop Noor in
Turkestan, China. This is one of two strands known to exist. The
Dalai Lama owns the other one. When I bought my first red pearl in
Bahrain, they had a poorly matched strand of smaller pearls of this
type. My biggie was simply way out of class to make a strand, as I
have been assured by all natural pearl dealers and many a collector.

Zeide

I collected the pearls in this necklace over a period of 24 years bought one at a time mostly from reputable pearl dealers and other collectors all over the globe plus the last ten from the main source in Kashgar, Turkestan. If I figure in travel expense, search time, and aggravation the only person in the world who would have a chance to pay me enough to part with my Mostly-Lop-Noor strand is Bill Gates.

Zeide

Lop Noor is a salt lake. The red shells are not very common there either, but at least they occur at all. The red pearls are also called dragon pearls and are supposed to have all kinds of magical powers that business men in Hong Kong seem to be willing to pay a lot of money for. However, the pearls are so rare that just fishing for pearls is not paying for the effort. As such, new uses have thus been found for the mother of pearl that is ground up and used in lipsticks and rouge. Given the enterprising nature of the Turkestan natives, the red pearls will soon be a thing of the past forever.

Zeide

 

[pattye]

Oh Dear, STOP! You are making me cry!!! I was soooooo sucked in----being new to the forum-----

Pattye
so many pearls so little time

 

[Slraep]

Oh Dear, STOP! You are making me cry!!! I was soooooo sucked in----being new to the forum-----

Don't cry Pattye! Have a good laugh instead! I think everyone, new or not, was scratching their heads wondering! We all wanted it so much to be TRUE...there's just something "jaw dropping" about that colour had it been natural.

Slraep

 

[Caitlin]

I was soooooo sucked in----being new to the forum-----

Being new had nothing to do with it.

I even "attended" the ZESPA - the Z-E School of Pearl Appreciation.

Behold- I give you the infamous Lop Noors- half garnered from a personal trip to Bahrain. And if she weren't Zeide Erskine, why, no one else could have the heft to buy them-except her- the foremost pearl expert in the world!

To tell the truth, I have looked for some other CFWP as bright and clean as these ever since-

 

[Valeria101]

There was one thing good about those red trinkets: I found this forum following a post about them elsewhere on the net. I wonder if Zeide isn't posting her usual elsewhere as we type.... Amazing how isolated forum communities can be, just a click from each other.

Anyway, it got me to do some research about Lop Noor - the area cross China's border, and a historic pearl market after all. It was surprisingly easy, in fact, to find credible reports on the environment and the local economy, the gem trade today (jade) and contact the authors. You never know until you try!

Man, that was embarrassing

 

[Valeria101]

And about the color of the pearl, i've attached a picture of the pearl necklace we used to have...

Crazy how easy intense red/pink overtone is taken these days, isn't it... As if they grew on trees! You'd think cultured pearls would aim to look like the original goods, but not really

 

[NaturalPearls]

Peacock Brooche