[Valeria101]

Interesting how the pearls have changed! Wonder what might have happened to their structure over time, salt saturation and reversal, etc. If the effect is similar to the extreme iridescence of pearls from buried treasure, what luck!

Man, wish they had posted all 180 pages of the lab report...

[knotty panda]

I would have liked that too. I definitely think some invitations to Mr. Fisher and his folks to stop by for a little chat are in order. Yes, I noticed the improved color condition as well. I chalked that up to clean water. They shouldn't be white at all, if they are Venezuelian pearls, they should be a pink color. And why take the salt out of them? Is that done routinely today? What's the purpose?

[Valeria101]

Haven't heard of new pearl de-salting...

Just to throw in 2c:

From trivia of marine archeology, it appears that such practice is common to avoid salt becoming trapped and crystallizing inside the structure of materials as they dry. I don't think I have nearly the whole story of why this is done: one argument is that the salt crystals forming inside things as they dry out cause things to crumble, crack, discolor, etc. What happens to non de-salted pearls... no idea.

I would imagine that new pearls do not contain inordinate amounts of sea salt (shell meat doesn't!), those old ones must have soaked it in from sitting in sea water afterwards.


If the resulting white (or the grays in the old pictures) are anywhere near the original colors of the pearls makes one interesting question!


What pink pearls were/are found in Venezuela?

[knotty panda]

They believe these were part of a haul back to Spain and were harvested in Venezuela from the pinctata imbricata which was fairly prominent for pearling at the time. Stories of pearls the size of robin's eggs, and such. Perhaps they are now certain where the pearls originated. Anyway, the resultant pearls, if that is indeed where they are from, are pink. But then again, I'm just reading this stuff and really know zip. Akira Hyatt -- where are you?

I had considered that "salt dries things out" theory and agree with it. But I didn't know if that was part of the normal harvesting process done today or not.

The pearls were in an iron box for 400 years. The pictures you initially saw were some really dirty pearls. They've had a bath and are beginning to get cleaned up for their debut. I'm quite sure nothing is being done to them that isn't straight by the book. Shipwrecks are big business and making sure everything is recovered properly is a huge concern.

Akira? Hello? Are you out there?

[Satine De La Courcel]

Hi All..

This is just MHO the pearls look to be no to be "improved quality" nor changed in any way to me but cleaned up. If stuffed in a Iron box for 400 years then found I am sure I wodl definately need a srub down after that... LOL


Question? How do we know that those are the exact same pearls as posted in the original picture??

Answer: We do not its all conjecture. did they label them somehow to accurately show the cleaning process of those exact pearls from the original picture posted??? I highly doubt that..

These coudl be those or they could be others that were in "good shape"

that is what I want to know . are these on the website picture in the jar ( which from tall the descriptions I do not think that that picture represents all the pearls found.

Yes I want to know that much detail...

cheers
Ash

[smetzler]

Just to be sure, is this the photo from Blue Water site showing updated/cleaned pearls or is there something else?

[Valeria101]

Hm... documenting the process step by step would have solved that problem, but... who knows what was done

[knotty panda]

That appears to be one of the pictures enlarged. Follow the link I posted yesterday, there are a couple more pictures.

[smetzler]

Originally Posted by Valeria101

Interesting how the pearls have changed! Wonder what might have happened to their structure over time, salt saturation and reversal, etc. If the effect is similar to the extreme iridescence of pearls from buried treasure, what luck!

Antique glass iridescence was 'uncovered' by Schliemann et al in the 19th C, thereafter mimicked by the likes of Tiffany. This phenomenon results from the slow decay of the glass surface, in the case below beneath the dry soils of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. I had not considered that pearlescence could also be increased with decay?

Knotty, keep after Akira and let's get some definitive images here ASAP!

[Valeria101]

Originally Posted by smetzler

I had not considered that pearlescence could also be increased with decay?

I had no idea either until I saw some pearls showing the symptoms and read the related museum note. The examples are in public view at the Met and at the Babylon exhibit in Berlin.

It mustn't take that long to have pearl turn super-iridescent with age: a few centuries (rather then a few dozen!) should be enough: medieval pearls that were buried show some of that sometimes. Again, cannot know what it takes: the couple of example I can remember are from around 1500 all. From allot of buried pearls all that remains are the small gold posts that used to hold them Other looks new! Who knows... what could make such difference.

Wonder if whatever time does isn't similar to what thermal treatment does to pearls quickly


Anyway. The main morale of this story might be that pearls are practically 'forever' too. Or at least have a good shot at it.

[smetzler]

Originally Posted by Valeria101

The main morale of this story might be that pearls are practically 'forever' too.

Perhaps post-William Saville-Kent we should specify saltwater natural (or at least keshi)?

[knotty panda]

I have put out the feelers for Ms. Hyatt. If this isn't a conflict of interest for her, I would suspect she would honor us with her presence. If not, the pearls are 6 hours or so from me. I am also going to see if Blue Rose and/or Mel Fisher will grant me an interview -- or a copy of the 108 page report -- LOL. I can dream, can't I? They have their own forum website, but the activity is close to nil, considering this one. Maybe they would post for us to answer some questions. Caitlin, wanna pave the way, Teamie?

[Caitlin]

Sure. What can I do? Aren't they right there near you?

[knotty panda]

You've got the pull and influence. I'm just a lowly beader. See if someone will come and post on the forum for us for starters, that would be easiest.

[Valeria101]

Originally Posted by smetzler

Perhaps post-William Saville-Kent we should specify saltwater natural (or at least keshi)?

Keep that thought. I'm half way through a twelve step program of conversion to beady pearls...

Maybe one day, there will be a thousand-year old bead nucleated pearl to set the record straight. What would it take?