Seed pearls? Salt water? From where?

Lyn

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Jul 21, 2016
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m2b544.jpg5.jpg2.jpg6.jpg3.jpg8.jpg4.jpg1.jpgHi, I am new here and I love old natural pearls.
Would you please help to identify what kind of pearls they are? According to the invoice from 1975 this "Pearl Necklace" has been sold by the company "Arts from Asia" in Salzburg, Austria for DM 1090. 19k clasp with ruby and (?).
Thanks a lot from South Africa!
Lyn
 
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Hi Lyn, and welcome to Pearl-Guide!

Do you have a photo, or a link to the photo?
 
I can't help you but wanted to comment on how much I love your necklace!!!
 
The clasp is beautiful!

I hope Dave (Lagoon Island Pearls) will come along to comment on the pearls.
 
The clasp is beautiful!

I hope Dave (Lagoon Island Pearls) will come along to comment on the pearls.

I agree, this is a nice piece.

It's often difficult to determine a specific sources, but these present with saltwater features. They're quite lustrous, very few flat spots and single nuclei. (otherwise, flat spots, satin luster and equal potato-like shape would suggest FW origin)

Natural or cultural origin is always difficult to determine without provenance or close examination, but given the age and design of the piece, it appears authentic, not elaborately faked.

Each pearl appears to have unique inclusions at the nuclei and the "match by mismatch" is consistent with the period.

The "Art of Asia" name and styling suggests creation in India, which also supports Persian Gulf origin.
 
It's a big pleasure to read all your friendly comments. Dave, thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge.
I enjoy these pearls and they "balanced mismatch" very much, as much as to puzzle over they origin, obviously from India/Asia, probably under British Colonial Rule.

I would love to ask for your thoughts once again. See under, I bought these pearls as river pearls, but I am not sure about it. Would you please share your opinion? Thanks a lot in advance!
 

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I would love to ask for your thoughts once again. See under, I bought these pearls as river pearls, but I am not sure about it.

The term "river pearls" often mean Mississippi River origin or it's tributaries. Very few other streams produce pearls in any volume compared to American rivers. Of the tiny pearls, they tend to be white with very slight pink, silver or yellow tones and good luster. As mentioned previously FWPs often present with flat spots and potato-like shapes, which these clearly do.

Again, from a cursory investigation, it's really difficult to be specific from just a few images and it's even harder to suggest whether these would be incidental to cultural or natural operations. As a rule of thumb, I tend to ask myself whether a strand could be replicated from bulk lots of cultured FWPs and this pieces suggests, perhaps. Unlike the first strand, which may, but to a lesser degree.

Nonetheless, both are fine strands. Thank you for sharing them with us.
 
The pearls are so unique and the ruby clasp puts it over-the-top! Love them.
 
What ever they are I love them and wondering, if the certification would be worth. Is there a subject matter expert in Munich/Germany?
 
Especialy the second necklace I thing could be identified based also on it's clasp. It is very specific. The style seem to be much junger then the one with the ruby from the previous necklase. Also the pearls dont have that distinct growings markes comparing to the first necklace.
 
I don't think certification would matter on a strand like this. It looks old and the pearls look natural as they were, back then. If there were an appraiser that knew anything about old pearls, that would be a better option, but I am inclined to accept them as what they look like.

Those old Persian gulf seed pearls were so abundant, (there were absolutely TONS of them produced from the Persian Gulf over hundreds of years (and many more tons, yes, TONS, from the Sea of Cortez in the decades around the turn of the 20th Century, many of which were sold in Europe or resold by the Persian gulf dealers. Back then, they were not such sticklers about where the pearls came from.). I doubt it is worth a crook sorting through endless newly cultured freshwaters to find ones that could pass as old naturals. When someone finds such a clasp, it usually already had a strand of old naturals that just need to be cleaned and restrung.

Also, Old man Peach of American pearls told me that a strand I bought as river pearls were actually Persian Gulf pearls. He is absolutely an expert on river pearls! I have learned enough since to know he was correct. It was the salt water seed pearls that were abundant by the ton, not freshwater seed pearls from America. In fact I don't think seed pearls were ever at all were common in American freshwaters. Seed pearl size pretty much means they are from the Persian gulf or the sea of Cortez from the early 20th century and before.

Elisabeth Strack, owner and operator of a world-renowned Gem lab in Munich, is the world expert on the history of pearls. Look up the local gem lab, that's her. My historical information in this post comes from her textbook on pearls, called "Pearls" available through her Munich publisher in German and from the GIA in English.
 
Caitlin, your profound knowledge is amazing. And yes, I will definitely buy this book, thanks for the tip!
 
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