NATURAL PEARLS with X-rays

[Bodecia]

Hi All,

Been so long that I have been able to come on line I couldn't wait to log on to the PF. I have so much to catch up on, so many posts to read.

I have been offered some "natural" pearls. I think they are the real thing and wondered if any of you experts could confirm. I actually have X-ray photos of them too so hope that will help. But of course all nacre CFWP too would look similar ... still they do look like the real thing to me. Not big on 3 to 4 mm or so.

These are from a private collection. The lady also has some other beautiful pearls so I will list some more photos later. Here is the photo of the natural pearls and will post the x-ray photo next.

Hope one of you esteemed experts can advise.

Bodecia

 

[Bodecia]

Hi again,

Here is the photo of the x-ray of the natural pearls. Opinions ?

Bo

 

[jshepherd]

Good enough, but small. Is the offering for a hundred dollars or so? In that size range it would be fair.

 

[Bodecia]

Good enough, but small. Is the offering for a hundred dollars or so? In that size range it would be fair.

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the feedback on the pearls. She wants quite a bit more and the size is putting me off. They do look nice but that is of course because they look so big in the photo. I am finding out what else she has on offer and hopefully at better prices. Hopefully know by tomorrow. She does have a lovely set of Akoya which does seem very high quality but she hasn't given me a price on them yet. I will pop the photo in here in case you are still on line and can give me you opinion of what they are worth. Clasp is 18 k. Lady said they are Mikimoto but not marked but she bought them as Mikis and but due to not being marked not trying for a Miki price. Still I don't know what she wants for them at the moment. Has some other good looking pearls too. One strand that she is also calling Naturals but they look quite round to me. Will post a photo of them too.

Bodecia

Bodecia

 

[jshepherd]

Without the paperwork there is no additional value in the strand. Mikimoto is strictly a brand, yet the product is indistinguishable from brand to brand. So without the branding, there is no added value.

I would guess the pearls would be 6.5mm, and the strand is not too old, so market value would be fine. It is used... so do not go too high.

 

[Valeria101]

'Natural pearls' sounds great... perhaps they are (I am no expert to say 'yes' or 'no', but can't see any reason why they wouldn't be, from the details you have posted, Bodecia). As for price, frankly, I would expect more than $100 but well less than $1000. Sure enough, I'd be happy with the lower end of the range, esp. given the irregular shape of the pearls. It may be a while until you find another, but ...

Can't say I have the perfect price or quality reference either. I am used to see graduated strands from about 2mm to about 6mm. And their higher quotes includes fancy clasps sometimes.

Are you planning to wear them a bunch? b I love small - even seed size - pearls worn with enhancers , but it is not the most common 'look' folks expect from pearls.


Looking forward to see the roundish 'naturals'. The small ones can be quite round without causing a stir.

 

[Bodecia]

Hi,

This is the other strand the lady is calling Natural pearls but they just don't look like to me. Look to regular, too even. Welcome you opinions.
I don't know the size of these yet or the price. I do think she is honest so if they are actually Akoya then she has just mixed her pearls up but saying that she seems to have a good knowledge and collection of pearls.

Thanks, Bodecia

 

[jshepherd]

Do you have a close up of the "natural". It is really hard to see any detail from that photo. Also, what is the mm size?

PS
On the first photo, I would want to know why the strand is not marked if purchased from Miki. The mark is a major value factor, and Mikimoto would not sell it without.

 

[jshepherd]

'Natural pearls' sounds great... perhaps they are (I am no expert to say 'yes' or 'no', but can't see any reason why they wouldn't be, from the details you have posted, Bodecia). As for price, frankly, I would expect more than $100 but well less than $1000. Sure enough, I'd be happy with the lower end of the range, esp. given the irregular shape of the pearls. It may be a while until you find another, but ...
Can't say I have the perfect price or quality reference either. I am used to see graduated strands from about 2mm to about 6mm. And their higher quotes includes fancy clasps sometimes.
Are you planning to wear them a bunch? b I love small - even seed size - pearls worn with enhancers , but it is not the most common 'look' folks expect from pearls.
Looking forward to see the roundish 'naturals'. The small ones can be quite round without causing a stir.

That is the problem. They are seed pearls in that size. Very much like an oriental starter necklace. If the pearls were more round a symmetrical I would expect around $500, but they are not...

 

[Valeria101]

Hi,

This is the other strand the lady is calling Natural pearls but they just don't look like to me. Look to regular, too even. Welcome you opinions.

Oh... the wishful thinking! I wish they were natural... and want to believe they could. How big are they? Especially, how big is the largest? Would want a third party report for such a thing - just because I am paranoid by nature Not an Xray for me to interpret 'cause I can't tell natural from non-nucleated well .

 

[Bodecia]

Hi Valeria101 and All,

I thought $100 plus was not enough too. I know that naturals are not common but these are small. I don't mind irregular shaped pearls, especially when they are naturals. She wants close to $500 so I have to play it by ear and find out what she wants for the other necklaces she has.

I actually just had a package arrive today of Natural Pearls which I bought a couple of weeks ago and although the largest is around 6 mm and smallest 3 mm they for the most part are beautiful. It is a double strand although broken. That is not a problem as I will pull out a few that are below good and restring the best into a necklace. Haven't decided whether to make it one or 2 strands yet. Need time to go over them all in the daylight.

Well, as to wearing them a lot - not really as I don't go out much. I just cannot resist pearls and especially naturals or other beautiful pearls. I have some nice pendant/brooches which would look good as enhancers so I will look into that.

I am afraid I just have that Pearl disease we all seem to share

Anyway here is the photo - please let me know what you think.

Bodecia

 

[Bodecia]

Oh... the wishful thinking! I wish they were natural... and want to believe they could. How big are they? Especially, how big is the largest? Would want a third party report for such a thing - just because I am paranoid by nature Not an Xray for me to interpret 'cause I can't tell natural from non-nucleated well

Hi Valeria101 and All,

I don't know what size they are but she did say they were small. That tells me little though. She did say she sent an x-ray of that strand but I didn't get it so she must have forgetten it. I think I will get it later as I let her know. An x-ray would tell me if they were Akoyas or FW but I still wouldn't know if they were naturals. I think I need more photos of them.

Thanks, Bodecia

 

[Valeria101]

I thought $100 plus was not enough too.

That's for the seller to think You - feel free to bargain. Think where this seller stands with their pearls compared to a pre-cultivation sale scenario... these pearls are still 'entry level', among the more affordable options... only well fewer buyers are likely to want them then there might have before more flashy nucleated option came forth. So...

I actually just had a package arrive today of Natural Pearls which I bought a couple of weeks ago ...

Quite exciting! - having some cute natural pearls to play with. Have fun restringing How long would they be as a single strand? 'Guess you can try them on (on a temp string w/o knots, say). So what if they will not be out of the house often? Jewelry is one great soul mate...

 

[Valeria101]

An x-ray would tell me if they were Akoyas or FW but I still wouldn't know if they were naturals.

Well... the other Xray seems to have pretty good resolution, but overexposed ones don't show anything (pearls looking solid white blobs, impossible to tell the outer layer of nacre part even if it were there. It is supposed to be a good sign of Xray quality of the holes how up distinctly - RALLY no expert here!).

Until recently I thought no one would bother to assemble a graduated strand of small non-bead-nucleated freshwater pearls to fake the look of one of those old natural strands. But they have (saw one at AP of all places and posted here). Crazy!

 

[Bodecia]

I would guess the pearls would be 6.5mm, and the strand is not too old, so market value would be fine. It is used... so do not go too high.

On the first photo, I would want to know why the strand is not marked if purchased from Miki. The mark is a major value factor, and Mikimoto would not sell it without.

Hi Jeremy,

Thing is I don't know market value as I am used to buying via eBay so if you can give me you opinion I would value it. She said she bought them in 1980 and was told they were Mikimoto but has know way of know as they do not have the clasp. Said she has worn them with her strand of Mikis and they look exactly the same. Oh, they are 5.5 mm - that is one size she did give me. I think she was in a hurry and just gave me basic info for a starters.

What did you think of the 2nd "natural" pearl strand. Do you think they are just too round and regular to be naturals. I do like the look of them but if they are not naturals I wouldn't bother unless they are a good price as I do think they are small although don't know the exact sizes.

I have a couple more photos of that first strand and will upload them. Still I do think they are small. Of the one that is just a strand and mostly round I only have that one photo unfortunately.

Bodecia

 

[Bodecia]

Here is a photo - a close up of the clasp and a few pearls around it. Maybe you will see more from it.

As for my own naturals there is app. 40 inches for me to play with - WOW - I will probably remove about 12 of the smaller ones though as they are not top notch and any others that don't come up to scratch. Still have loads of fun. They were a good buy too No they won't go out of the house much, unfortunately but still I can drool over them. I drool over all my lovelies.

Bodecia

 

[Valeria101]

Speaking of the devil...

 

[Caitlin]

You have some interesting pearls there, but I didn't see any kind of provenance on any of them. The first strand looks like CFWP to me.

As they say, "once burned, twice shy". Since my experience with everyone, absolutely everyone, believing Zeide for a year of what turned out to be BS!(see post below for details), I have learned to ask for proof of any claims. We never even ASKed Zeide for provenance on her pearls for a year, we believed her expertise so implicitly. And we were so wrong not to have inquired.


Yet, when I did insist on ANY kind of provenance for ANY of her pearls, there was none. She could produce none, nada, zilch, not even for the tissue nuked Miki that had been through the court system and acquired by her grandfather. I bet your pearl lady doesn’t know 1/10th about pearls that Zeide does, so her knowing something about pearls does not tell you anything about her honesty either! Believe me, if she had provenance she would toot it all over.


I have learned to insist on provenance if you are going to call them "naturals”. Believe me, the big auction houses won’t sell them as “naturals” without proof. Why should you settle for less?


Without proof, let another fool buy them. Or if you did already buy them, get them authenticated before you call them "naturals". I am sorry, but I will challenge anyone who says their pearls are "naturals" for the provenance. This forum will up forever, so to speak, and we need to be sure, honest, and even educational in all our claims so we don't look dishonest or foolish. We want "street cred" and it took a kicking once already. (see post below)



BTW I will bet that the Miki is not a Miki either and the perfect looking one seems to have some BS too. If the second one in the thread is a natural, I'll eat my hat. She sure found your button, and she is pushing it. The picture Ana put up does look like a natural. The graduated one in your pic #7 looks new. If natural, it has to be about 100 years old. Even you question that one. Should you not question the seller's knowledge and integrity at this point? The shapes in #12 are interesting, but the color is awful. I would want to see more photos of that one spread out. And the back of the clasp.


BTW, I have some authentic, natural Lop Noor pearls I'd like to sell you. These are really the authentic thing from an apothecary shoppe in China that sells dragonballs and unicorn horns as well. You can't even get them in a regular pearl place; they get set aside for the special pearl shaman who comes around once a harvest for them........

 

[Caitlin]

For those who weren't here......In response to a flurry of Pm's.
Re Zeide

Well it turns out she was pretending a lot when it came to her own life and pearls. When she was asked to provide some kind of, any kind of, provenance on her Lop Noors, her transgraft project, her pteria sternas, in particular, she could not.

Yet she had sold several strands to a forum member claiming these kinds of origin. That is fraud. So when she was confronted with an expert from the GIA, (I was taking samples of all her disputed pearls to the Gem show and I asked her for any proof) she backed down, admitted in a thread called "mea culpa", that she had made it all up about the pearls and invented a character to hide behind, and then she left. She is a suburban housewife from Fresno who has an eBay collection of CFWP and a fanciful imagination.

Actually, I don't miss her sarcasm and lordly attitude toward people, though i miss her pearl repartee.

All this happened around Feb 2. There were some posts, but maybe Jeremy took them down. I don't think he wanted to post her downfall so blatently.

I deleted some of her worst BS posts, but many are accurate and an integral part of the thread. However, I will continue to take down any more of her blatant fantasies and falsehoods, as I find them.

I am sorry if I sounded emotional. Now you know why. Meanwhile, I will move this thread to Consumer Q & A forum. You get proof, let us know.

 

[Bodecia]

BTW, I have some authentic, natural Lop Noor pearls I'd like to sell you. These are really the authentic thing from an apothecary shoppe in China that sells dragonballs and unicorn horns as well. You can't even get them in a regular pearl place; they get set aside for the special pearl shaman who comes around once a harvest for them........

Hi Caitlin and All,

Oh, yes please do sell them to me ))) Not the unicorn horns though as I am eco friendly )) You are a card. I maybe a little gullible though to be sure. The lady who had the so called naturals has all of a sudden pulled them from sale. Said she is keeping the more irregular "naturals" and has sent the other round naturals to an Auction House that she and her husband has dealt with for years. I am not sure what to believe at this point. Still offering the Miki look-alikes though. I am still considering them and will for a while yet.

What though did you think of the Naturals that are mine. I bought them about 2 or 3 weeks ago and will included the photo again as with all the photos it can get confusing. I believe they are the real thing. But if anyone wants to disagree I will be all ears or eyes.
Still having computer setting up problems which are a real pain so not online as much as usual and still not catching up with all the PF posts.

Please do give me opinions on my very own Naturals though. Would love the feedback. About a dozen need to be discarded but the rest appear good to me and I plan to string them up into another double strand or one long strand. Probably one long strand and use a few spares for earrings etc. I haven't remeasured them but I think they are 2 to 3 mm to 5 mm from memory. I have just popped them into my jewellery box waiting for me to have the energy. Still I do love them warts and all.

Thanks, Bodecia