kiwipaul
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 21, 2013
- Messages
- 195
Pearl Guide just keeps on giving the accumulated knowledge of its members.
That giving reaches out beyond the Guide itself, to the members' sites.
Who hasn't looked at KariPearls.com, which is where I first saw Abalone Pearls.
In New Zealand Paua (Abalone) shell jewelry is so common it's largely ignored by the antique trade and the buying public.
If it wasn't for Pearl Guide, I would've walked past this last week without a second look.
However thanks to the Guide I recognized it as a pearl, not shell.
The top center pic shows its real size, about an inch (2.5mm) long.
It was probably a Victorian/Edwardian watch fob, a conversation piece, an attractive and humorous play on a shark's tooth.
It will date circa 1890-1910, coinciding with the earliest use of Abalone/Paua by Arts & Crafts jewelers like Archibald Knox and Charles Robert Ashbee.
That date takes it to a whole new level in NZ jewelry history, because the earliest NZ use of Paua in jewelry is attributed to Alfred Atkinson working in the 1920's.
And it gets better. After I snapped it up, I noticed the little Crown hallmark beside the 9CT, the mark of Frank Grady, one of New Zealand's most prominent (and collectible) early silver and goldsmiths.
So I'm thinking I've won the Treble - a museum piece as maybe the earliest known item of NZ Paua jewelry, AND it's a Paua Pearl AND it's by Frank Grady.
Thanks Pearl Guide, and thank you Pearl Guide members!
That giving reaches out beyond the Guide itself, to the members' sites.
Who hasn't looked at KariPearls.com, which is where I first saw Abalone Pearls.
In New Zealand Paua (Abalone) shell jewelry is so common it's largely ignored by the antique trade and the buying public.
If it wasn't for Pearl Guide, I would've walked past this last week without a second look.
However thanks to the Guide I recognized it as a pearl, not shell.
The top center pic shows its real size, about an inch (2.5mm) long.
It was probably a Victorian/Edwardian watch fob, a conversation piece, an attractive and humorous play on a shark's tooth.
It will date circa 1890-1910, coinciding with the earliest use of Abalone/Paua by Arts & Crafts jewelers like Archibald Knox and Charles Robert Ashbee.
That date takes it to a whole new level in NZ jewelry history, because the earliest NZ use of Paua in jewelry is attributed to Alfred Atkinson working in the 1920's.
And it gets better. After I snapped it up, I noticed the little Crown hallmark beside the 9CT, the mark of Frank Grady, one of New Zealand's most prominent (and collectible) early silver and goldsmiths.
So I'm thinking I've won the Treble - a museum piece as maybe the earliest known item of NZ Paua jewelry, AND it's a Paua Pearl AND it's by Frank Grady.
Thanks Pearl Guide, and thank you Pearl Guide members!
