[Katy Bodenburg, G.G.]

Hello. I am trying to determine whether the pearl strand I need to appraise for resale value is akoya or SS. The necklace is believed to be from the 1960's. The pearls are cultured. They have a gold bodycolor, thin-med nacre, low-mod. luster. They are well-matched and range from 8.7mm-9.2mm near round.
I have read that Akoya's can be this size-but I don't think they were that big in the 60's? The color seems more reasonable for South Seas pearls, but I don't know how much culturing was being done in those regions during this time frame. One other thing that is confusing me is the clasp. It is a white metal-not gold, not even sterling-my guess is 800 Silver...

Plus, do you know of other market resources to find pearl RESALE values other than the auction market?

Any thoughts or places to point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
-Katy B

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Katy,

South sea pearl nacre tends to have a noticably different texture from akoya nacre. While fine akoya nacre tends to have a metallic look as a function of its smaller aragonite crystals, maxima nacre looks more silky due to its larger aragonite crystals. By the way, how did you determine the nacre thickness? How thin do you think is thin? Is the nacre fully abraded to nucleus around the drill holes? Then you can just gauge the nacre thickness from looking at it. Anyway, both 1960s akoyas and Burmese maximas would have thick nacre, akoyas about 0.5mm or so and Burmese 1mm (both measured in absolute terms, i.e. of the radius). Thin nacre by current standards would not have been found in either one, so they may be new but early agers.

Here's a link to some new Burmese/Myanmar pearls:

http://www.myanmarpearl.com/marketing.htm

And here is another article on Burmese pearls:

http://www.imperial-deltah.com/myanmar.htm

Zeide

[Katy Bodenburg, G.G.]

Hi Zeide.
I would like to post a photo of the pearls-but can't do it on the internet forum. Do you have a direct e-mail that you can divulge?
The nacre was examined by looking thru a loupe at the drill holes. The nacre around the holes has become quite abraded and appears to be around .5 mm. thick. Thank you for sending the links to the SS Burmese-Myanmar pearl sites. And thank you for your interest!
Sincerely,
Katy B
P.S. I thought it was the South Seas pearls that have the metallic type luster...

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Katy,

South Sea pearls typically obtain their metallic luster from modern treatments. You won't find it as often on vintage pearls or fresh out of the mussel in Tahiti. Actually, the same is true for most akoyas, too, especially the ones cultured in warmer waters where nacre grows more quickly. Anyway, if they are akoyas 0.5mm of the radius corresponds to 1mm total as measured by latter day pearl sellers. That is very, very thick and in line with small South Seas especially ones with some wear on them. You seem to have hit treasure. The pictures in the links will give you a good idea what Burmese pearls can look like. I will send you a private message with my e-mail address so you can send me some pictures.

Zeide