y'all are BETTER THAN APPRAISERS! - i was told when asking online about pearls

No vigorous rubbing, but do get in between the pearls a bit more.

One thing you will NOT want to use with hard water is Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap (often recommended on here for cleaning pearls) which is actually a liquid soap and forms truly terrible and hard to remove scum when combined with hard water. I bought a bottle of it and found out the hard way. I quickly learned to only use it with distilled water for washing and rinsing jewelry.

The silk is old and needs to be replaced. If you decide to keep them and wear them, have them restrung or risk losing them from breakage. If you sell them, the buyer can worry about the restringing.
 
Nine?! My two are about all I can handle. Wow.
 
the 4th and after are all really the same - except 22 years later I'm still changing diapers :/
 
Nine? I would count you as a public servant, if not an infant servant! There must be a lot of joy amongst all the work. :)
 
It's amazing what a bath and better lighting can do. They look so pretty to me now! Although clearly still need some work.

0827141815f.jpg0827141815c.jpg10-11mm metallic wbite drop FWP
 
multicolour colour shifting 8mm fwp0827141811f.jpg0827141809b.jpg0827141809d.jpg0827141811c.jpg

and these symbols are much clearer. though i still dont know what they are?

0827141812h.jpg0827141812i.jpg
 
Thank you GemGeek :) I think they are beautiful! Helps to love them all dirty and grimy. After a bath they are inspirational!
I prematurely posted earlier.
 
They look so much nicer after their bath! Good job!

And now in post 29 we see some of the surface characteristics that are typical of akoyas, like that little dimple in the top left pearl of the first photo, and the marks on the left side pearls, top and bottom, of the 4th photo in that post. These are very minor. You've got some nice pearls there.

And the thread looks rattier than ever now, so you see, they really are begging to be restrung.

The mark on the clasp is probably a maker's mark, but I don't recognize it. It looks a bit like LE (or EL) interconnected. Here's one website you could search:
http://www.langantiques.com/university/index.php/Category:Jewelry_Maker's_Marks

It could be LM or ML too. The M would be rounded in this case.
 
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Maybe it's in Arabic? Or Cyrillic alphabet?

Whatever, it could be fun to try to figure out the maker but even if you never figure it out, you have nice akoyas with gold clasps. All they need to be wearable is to be restrung.

Even if you plan to sell them, restringing would bring you a better price, I would think (provided you don't pay a lot for the restringing.)
 
Ah, initials. I didn't think of that. Gosh it's hard to tell. The two dont seem exactly the same. Not a stamp? I dont know. Peculiar. :)
They definitely need rethreading.
Think you could value them ? I'm quite clueless. Or how would I go about that?
 
Yes, a stamp, but what the design on the stamp is, is the question. I don't think it is important to know whose mark it is, for resale purposes, though. Really only if they were Mikimoto would it add to their value, and that is not Miki's mark.

If you sell them you will want to measure the size range-- the largest and smallest pearls-- and the length of the necklaces from end to end.

I can't tell you what someone may be willing to pay for them. That is the ultimate meaning of the value: what someone is willing to pay for it.
Venue will affect the selling price, but that doesn't mean you would personally make more money.

For example, people may pay more if buying consigned estate jewelry from a reputable jeweler than they might for something they bought on eBay, but you as the consignor would only receive maybe 50% of the selling price, and the jeweler who sold them for you would get the rest.

If you want to eBay them, search "sold" listings on eBay for similarly sized vintage akoya pearl strands with gold clasps, you will get some idea of what buyers are willing to pay for such pieces at present. Just be aware that many eBay sellers call freshwater pearls "akoyas" to make them seem more valuable, especially Chinese sellers. So limit your search to the USA, to reduce those FWP coming up on search. Also, many vintage akoya strands don't have the work "akoya" in the listing, only "pearls" as the seller may not know what they have. Limit search to "pre-owned" also. And eliminate "Mikimoto" from the search. Eliminate "faux", "imitation" and "simulated" to reduce the search results further.

Be aware that pearls do not hold their value the way one wishes they did, though. The gold clasps help with the value.

By the way, the strands could also be clasped end to end to make a single, longer strand.
 
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Taking care of nine children, you SO deserve pearls in your life! People here wear pearls while cleaning horse stables. While used pearls can bring in a bit of money (but not large amounts), the joy of such an unexpected and beautiful gift coming your way will probably be a lot greater.

- Karin
 
Analilia,

Your pearls now look amazing! I hope you will decide to keep them. You have a beautiful family, and girls who will likely have special occasions when they could wear Mother's pearls, so a family tradition is born.

Perhaps when you restring the pearls, take pearls from the 2nd necklace to make the first one your preferred length. There will most likely be more than enough pearls left for a bracelet.
 
I like Pattye's idea! A longer necklace plus a bracelet. And a new family heirloom to pass along to the kids.
 
:) I often think about these things. I wonder though, which daughter will get what? I do have 3 rings of considerable value to hand down. Perhaps the pearls will help complete what is lacking (five daughters). I was thinking that the beaded pearls would be lovely with a lower neck (NOT TOO LOW, mind you) wedding gown but do you think accenting with pink would be tacky? Or simply not traditional enough?

0828141303.jpg Modeled by Aila. I'm not so sure the pink looks as good on the fair complected?


I love the idea of the bracelet, too. Hmmmm.
 
That is so cute on her! Very little-girl-dress-up!

I'd certainly hold onto the pearls. But don't wait until the girls are all grown to let them see them, handle them, wear them now and then.
Let them build some memories of them.
 
I guess each daughter will decide if she wants to dress traditionally or not!
 
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