[Caitlin]

MSNBC
Treasure hunters find sunken gold and pearls

Riches from 17th-century shipwreck could be worth upwards of $1 million

[Casey.R]

Wow! Thanks for the link. I love hearing about sunken treasure.
Good thing the pearls were protected.

[Caitlin]

I hope to hear more about this. Just imagine thousands of 400 year old NATURAL pearls!!!

I want to see pictures of them so bad........

[Casey.R]

I would like to see pics too! I didn't catch who found them in the artcle but perhaps they have a web site? I'm going to have to go back and look again. I think Odessy has pics of their finds on their site so maybe these people will too.

Not pearls here, but this link has some pics of cool things found on sunken ships.
http://www.quest4treasure.com/imagetoc.htm

[richipat]

I heard this yesterday coming home from work on NPR.
They were openin the wooden box while the reporter was there. Once the got the lid open, you could hear ohs and ahs in the backround. However, the guy she was interviewing said "These are worth hundreds."

I laughed because of they are as old as they think, the pearls must be natural and they are worth hundreds of thousands.

[richipat]

Here is the link.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=11118144


And you can watch the box being opened here:

http://www.bluewaterventureskw.com/n...ease061107.asp

[Caitlin]

Thanks! Well, that is a good start!

[Valeria101]

No pearl news escapes this forum!


The content of the box - the range of sizes and shapes, is quite intriguing. As if someone had bought all usable output from some pearling operation rather than choose.

Wonder how damaged those pearls really are - they look rather disheartening in the pictures. And how they might be restaured (pealing?) ...

On the bulletin board of MellFisher.com there is THIS back of the envelope evaluation and a few more bits of info. Looks like the pearls will be up for grabs eventually

[CortezPearls]

Some years ago (can't remember when) some Treasure Hunters were looking for two famous Spaniard Ships that sunk with great wealt on their voyage back to Europe. These ships were the Guadalupe and the Tolosa.

They found the treasure and recovered One thousand pearls...I made a copy of part of the article: the one that had a photo of the pearls

[Valeria101]

Douglas, any idea what could be the state of conservation of such pearls ?

[knotty panda]

The website says they're in good shape, attributing that to the silt in the box. What I want to know is, are they fresh or saltwater or a mix, and how are they going to determine what they are.

[Valeria101]

Originally Posted by knotty panda

The website says they're in good shape, attributing that to the silt in the box. What I want to know is, are they fresh or saltwater or a mix, and how are they going to determine what they are.

Yeah... they just do not look quite that 'fresh' in the image. And if they were in wearable condition, I would have expected this bit to be part of the headline... which it isn't. No idea how pearls fare in sea water, amazingly... from those in 'dry' archaeological finds, some are in pristine shape, some simply melt away and all that remains on the jewelry are the tell-tale pegs.

As far as I know, the origin of pearls (freshwater vs. salt, and to some extent more specific origin) can be ID'ed with spectrometry tests which can be performed at the main gemology laboratories. There is a bit of literature I do not remember off-hand (for really casual, pearl-guide related browsing, oups! )... e.g. THIS advertising the use of RAMAN spectroscopy to ID types of pearls, and THIS- using LA-ICP-MS spectrometry to differentiate species of salt and freshwater MOP and nacre.

On the other hand, pearls from archaeological finds have been identified already (or at least their collection labels pretend as much!)... whether by the standard testing used by gemological labs or not, I wouldn't know. Besides, even for more recent historic jewelry with natural pearls the difference is academic.

This is about all that comes up at a first thought, it doesn't sound like a trivia question, and would bet that at least one of the major labs concerned with pearls (SSEF, GRS, GAAJ...) should be interested. If the folks who found those pearls would consider...

[Casey.R]

The photo above is from a different ship wreck right? I don't think I've seen any images from the recent one.

[knotty panda]

Valeria: Thanks for the info! Yes, they will be assessed properly, I have no doubt. Wouldn't surprise me to find out that some of our very own forum members have been contacted already for a look-see. Wouldn't that be exciting?

[knotty panda]

I had almost given up any hope of Blue Water Rose updating their website, but they finally did!

http://www.bluewaterventureskw.com/N...terPearls.aspx