Tahitian (?) pearl pendant - Help me confirm and guess price please!

[ghostman]

Hi,

My sister received a pearl pendant as a birthday gift. She's not familiar with pearls and I only know marginally more than her. It looks like a Tahitian pearl, but can anyone confirm? My cheap calipers aren't precise enough, but it's just under 12mm (perhaps around 11.75mm). I don't notice any blemishes on it and it looks round. Any idea how much it might have costed? My sister hopes to reciprocate with a gift of similar price range when her friend's birthday rolls around. The black leather necklace and box were not the original - I used it only as props for these photos. Thanks for any responses!

 

[pearlescence]

I was thinking that it certainly looked like a genuine tahitian, and a very even coloured, lustrous and smooth surfaced one at that until I saw you photo of the back and saw the odd gap between the pearl and the finding with something odd about the nacre there, it seems to have a lip on it. Can you have a very close look into that gap?

 

[ghostman]

Hi pearlescence,

That's a good catch. I couldn't tell by looking at the actual pendant with my naked eye, but when it's blown up in that photo (I estimate it's about 10x bigger in the above photos), there does seem to be something up near the finding.

I grabbed my macro lens and got a very close up shot (attached. sorry about the dust). To my untrained eye, it looks like the jeweler got sloppy with the epoxy glue. Up close, it looks pretty bad, but viewed normally, I couldn't spot it. To give a point of reference, this photo is probably over 300x and the actual diamond only measures about 1mm in diameter. The top-right part of the photo gives a better idea of what it actually looks in real life, but it's still probably a bit larger than the actual pendant.

Hmm... perhaps her friend got a good deal on it due to the defect? Any estimates on how much it might have costed, assuming the jeweler priced it accordingly?

 

[pearlescence]

If it's the glue that's no problem, I had a sudden suspicion it was a ring of fake pearl goop - seen similar with some fakes where there is a flaw right at the drill hole where the goop has dried onto whatever goes throught he hole while the bead is being dipped or whatever is done to it

 

[jshepherd]

Typically, when setting a pearl without a cup, there will be glue around the top. What the dealer should do at that point is wait for it to dry and then loosen it with something like Attack and then carefully remove the glue. It can then be polished with Attack and a Q-tip.

 

[KAC]

Shame they didn't clean up the glue but that is a great pearl.

 

[ghostman]

Thanks everyone. Just glad that the excess glue isn't a big deal.

 

[GemGeek]

I love the whole necklace - just my cup of tea! I see glue all the time with my loupe, but no one would ever notice in the wearing of it.

 

[dkan 168]

It is a elegant and classic pendant. My only concern is that the pearl is very clean on the surface with very even colour, which makes me suspect it could be an imitation pearl.

It is still a very nice pendant regardless if the pearl is real or not.

DK

 

[Caitlin]

My Tahitian pearl necklace has such flawless pearls every single pearl is without blemish and that is something for a Tahitian! that it could be man made, but for the extraordinary overtones. That pendant does not have overtones I could see in the photos. Does it have them in person?