:confused I have had these for a very long time, they used to be a necklace, which came unstrung. They are odd, they are ugly in shape but yet, pretty at the same time.

My question basically, is, What is the proper name for them, and where would they come from? And also is there any value to them?

Any response reply would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!

Hi Salanna,

A picture might help greatly, but chances are fairly high that they are Chinese potato pearls.

Zeide

Thank You For Replying, Here Are A Couple Of Photos.

Hi Salanna,

Those are baroque cultured akoyas in natural silver grey color.

Zeide

Thank you! Is there any value to them??

Hi Salana,

As loose, unstrung pearls not. Even if you paid substantial amounts some time ago, the nature of the business is that when you try to sell it again, the price plunges. Take this as an example: I recently inherited some jewelry from my mother in law who had a very conservative taste. That means she bought jewelry for the perceived value of the materials. In the particular case I am discussing here, she had a 2.2ct fancy oval cut diamond solitaire (independently rated SI 1, G color) in a plain setting. She paid US$16,000.00 for that thing about 4 years ago. My husband wanted to see what it will fetch now. I told him that she probably overpaid by US$ 4,000.00 because it was a fancy cut and custom set. So the retail value of the stone was only US$ 12,000.00. To arrive at a wholesale ballpark you have to divide that by 3 (so-called triple keystone) = US$ 4,000.00. To get a jeweler to buy it back from you, you have to make do with half of that. That means the sell-back value is a mere US$ 2,000.00. To test this proposition, we went to a jewelry buyer in our home town in Fresno and that was exactly what he offered. So much on the subject of "investment" jewelry, even the "surefire" diamond solitaire.

If you have a truly unusual piece, though, there may be an active collectors' market. Although there is no collectors' market for average diamonds, there is one for unusual pearls. Baroque akoyas are now rarer than before because most akoyas are not cultured for long enough to grow significantly baroque. However, your standard jewelry buyer wants their akoyas round. The whole point of the bead implant is to get more round pearls and a baroque pearl defeats that purpose.

As such, you have to find somebody who is explicitly looking for baroque akoyas of natural color or restring them into an interesting and unique design that appeals to collectors of unusual pieces.

Zeide

Hello,

Thank You So Much For Your Help! I Greatly Appreciate It. Anna

howdy,

Those look very similar to the "Tahitian" pearls that our dear eBayer ES Store/ ES Designer Jewelry carry http://cgi.ebay.com/ES-RARE-SEA-WATE...QQcmdZViewItem

Up until recently they were marketing them as real Tahitians worth thousands of US dollars. I see that now they've got them under the category Tahitian Pearls but the description doesn't mention it.

hmm, maybe complaining helps .... a little at a time!

Pierrette d'Entremont

Hi,

Those are baroque akoyas. I personally find them more attractive than the round ones.

Zeide

Zeide,
For buying or selling diamonds there is the "RAPPAPORT LIST", the list is updated every month.
You can get there an exact idea about the value of the diamond you own.
The price on the list is a base for negotiation.

Hi,

I know that. According to rappaport this would have been a US$ 10,000.00 diamond with no value added for the fancy cut.

Zeide

Zeide,
Fancy cut is usually cheaper. In diamonds the most valuable shape is round.

Hi,

Although that makes little sense to me because most diamonds are round cuts since that gives the highest cutting yield from a cubic crystal, I do not really care that much. I'll probably have it made into a pearl clasp and mabelswine a South Sea cultured klonk with it. There are many people around who are willing to pay a premium for both with that combination. Then I can reinvest the proceeds into some interesting new pearl project like Ricardo's tissue-only nucleated atropurpureas. I was using this little diamond selling adventure mostly as an illustration for why jewelry, especially of the ordinary kind, is not really an investment.

Zeide