what quality pearls do I have?

[Pearl54whereareyou]

I'm a newbie at pearls and I'm so glad I found this website. I have 2 questions regarding pearls I inherited, and any knowledgeable feedback would be greatly appreciated! 1) What kind of pearls do I have?, and 2) I know there's pitting, esp. on the bracelet--is there any way to polish or otherwise restore pitted pearls to their former smoothness? I'm looking forward to hearing from you experts. Thank you so much.

 

[jshepherd]

The quality is difficult to determine from the photo, but they appear to be older akoya pearls.

Unfortunately, there isn't anything that can be done to restore them to their original beauty. You might consider something like this - http://shop.thepearldoctor.com/product.sc?productId=2&categoryId=2

We use this kit when customers send strands to us to be cleaned, and it works better than anything else we've ever used.

 

[pattye]

If/when the pearls need restringing, it might be possible to rearrange the pitted and damaged pearls so they are less obvious. I especially love the colored gemstone clasp.

 

[Caitlin]

Worst comes to worst, upgrade the pearls. That looks to be a quality clasp and sometimes people just let too much hairspray and perfume and makeup get on their akoyas, which pits them all up.

I'd say buy some nice ones from someone like Jeremy and send him the clasp to attach to the new ones. Pattye might have another strand of those jinormous purple-y freshwaters. Those would look Fab with that clasp.

 

[Pearl54whereareyou]

Thank you so much for your expertise! I'll look into all the suggestions in the near future.