What was the size of pearl strands women wore during the Gilded Age (e.g. Vanderbilts

[willeyi]

Hello Experts,
I love the way women in the late 1800s and early 1900s wore long strands of pearls such as the Vanderbilt women. So I recently purchased a 52" strand.

My question... I have not been able to find out the pearl size of the strands these women wore. I see the strands in pictures in many books (Girls with Pearls, Pearls, etc...), but there is no reference of pearl size.

Also, what size pearls were Queen Elizabeth I? They look quite big, but as they were natural pearls, could they all have been say 9-10mm akoyas which would make them super super rare.

And finally, what happened to all these strands? I am mostly curious as to what happened with the Vanderbilt pearls?

If anyone has any insight, I would appreciate it.

Many thanks!

 

[pearlescence]

I would guess that many of the pearls worn in Elizabethan times would be around 6mm to 7mm - or bigger of course. There were only natural pearls then. They would be freshwaters. One of the main reasons why the romans invaded England was to get their hands on our gold and especially our freshwater pearls. They were relatively plentiful until the industrial revolution especially did for them. Now, thanks mostly to the european union rivers have been cleaned up and mussels are coming back (along with a huge diversity of aquatic life)
I'll also guess that some of those pearls still sit in the Royal Family' stash , either as personal property or as crown property
The Queen as queen automatically got the best and roundest pearls, then roundness went down in rank. I have a vague idea that who wore what sort of pearls at court was strictly controlled by etiquette

 

[Caitlin]

Those Edwardian ? era pearls are my favorites too! When the pearls were natural, the sizes were smaller, unless you were Mrs. Henry Dodge or royalty, often about 5-6-or 7 mm and quite off round. Right about in the 20's was when the cultured strands came out and ropes of pearls became very widespread among the non-royal wealthy and fashionable. These pearls were quite round.

 

[waimeamomi]

Here's an older thread about Mrs. Jay Gould's pearls. I believe my research from that revealed that Gould pearl collection is still intact, unlike most of the others from that time. You can google for more info. It's very interesting!
https://www.pearl-guide.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3117&highlight=Mrs.+Gould

 

[Caitlin]

Nice thread, but the link didn,t work. If we could get a scan of the kunz photo it would be great. That book is out of copyright....

 

[pearls92]

Kunz's book

Kunz's book

Caitlin

At this link:

http://www.amimalakos.com/argonauta/2011-7-12/illibrodelleperle.pdf

you can read all the Kunz's book, I think is an important book for the pearls in history.


Have a nice day.

Gianpiero Piva
gppiva@libero.it

 

[Caitlin]

Hi
I own the book and have for many years. That farland edition has color pictures though. It appears there is a new edition out less than $14! I paid $25 for my last one! all b&w pix, too. The kindle edition is 3.97 and I'll bet there are no pictures.

 

[willeyi]

Hi,
Thanks for the info on the Farland edition of the Kunz book with the color pictures. I will get a copy.

P.S. Speaking of books, I am about to finish reading Tears of Mermaids. I have only been to this forum a few times, but I now recognize some of the names of the senior pearl experts from that book. The book is quite an interesting read.

 

[Caitlin]

A pearl book without photos? Read Doug Fiske's review of it on this site. He was an editor at the GIA and mostly wrote the new pearl course, for which he also relied on Jeremy to be his travel guide, too. He exaggerates, to say the least. I don't wear "Tootsie" glasses. At first, I was a bit offended, but as I read, I realized he dealt with me most kindly compared to most of the world's pearl figures. He turned Jeremy into a slapstick comedy and that was after Jeremy had a huge part in setting up his world tour for his book in the works. But, he gets meaner as he goes. One by one, he turns every venerable pearl person into a cartoon figure. It is a mean spirited book, very much like india ink being spilled on a strand of pearls.

Oh yeah. And he believed Zaeide Erskine showed him a rare early mikimoto necklace that was used in a trial in France by Leonard Rosenthal, to argue for calling man made pearls 'cultured' pearls and reserving 'natural' for authentic, wild grown pearls. He won the trial, but never used a Mikimoto to argue his points! It was pure fiction that Zeide's father got it from Leonard. Zeide had filled this forum with such fictions!

I know, for a fact, that the necklace she claimed was THE the Miki, is really one of the very first Freshadama necklaces with blinding orient, which Jeremy brought back from China and had kindly given to Zeide. Of course Bloom did not know from pearls as Zeide was his first visit, and he happily succumbed to her yarns, even after I warned him and explained the situation. I don't think he heard a word I said and just looked at my lips moving while thinking how he was going to write me up, because I told him how Zeide confessed online, just that morning! She admitted that she had made up many of her posts and she admitted she had sold freshwater pearls as pteria sterna and abalone among other types, real and made up. She is the big scandal over here. Bloom is forgettable. His book has no credance in the pearl world and that is hard to do!

 

[willeyi]

Hi Caitlin,
I just read the thread about Tears of Mermaids, and wow... I was shocked to read all the details. I bought it on amazon after searching for pearl books and bought it because this book got such high reviews! I wish one of you experts would write a review or two stating examples of such inaccuracies and fiction and then recommend other books to read. This way, people might not purchase his book if they had suggestions of another book to get.

Thanks for this insight... now I'm thinking if I even want to finish reading it, but I guess I will just to finish it off. I will say though, when I read about you in the book, the impression I got was that you are a person with a lot of expertise and knowledge and one that does not believe something without doing some validity check. So, I thought you were represented positively. As I read about you, I thought he held you in high regard.

Thanks for sharing this. Amazing someone would write this fiction. Worse yet... look at the amazon reviews and see how many people believe and love this book.... including me... up until tonight. I need to find a new pearl book!

 

[Caitlin]

I know. I decided he was really kind to me, but got worse as he went on. He has fans from his other self-immersive journalism, but no one who knows pearls gave him a good review. He is a master of that self-reflective, describing every discomfort he endured during his journeys journalism, and all his feelings about his wife and son, back at home.....

The book is not about pearls, the book is about Steven Bloom immersing himself in the pearl world as he did in the mikveh pool in his first book, Postville. He found pubic hairs and oil on the surface of the mikveh pool and reported it faithfully......with the emphasis on his own squirmy reaction. LOL!