Natural grey pearl?

[seadancer]

This pearl is about 11m in size...it is baroque so hard to measure.. it has a hole which I think is natural, not drilled...it shows onion type rings as shown. What type of pearl it is I dont know....it came from an old ring but I would like to make a pendant with it...what do you guys think?

 

[GemGeek]

Indirect daylight pictures might help. Looks like great pendant material to me!

 

[pattye]

I agree, great pendant, just needs some sort of cap with bail to cover the hole. I'd stick a pin in the hole to see if it is drilled down aways, so a cap with post could be glued securely.

 

[seadancer]

Yep...a pendant it will be, thanks guys....btw, I think it is a natural USA freshwater pearl, what do you think ?

 

[pattye]

Nothing you've shown us so far makes me think this is a natural pearl from the USA. I've seen similar colors and shapes of cultured Chinese pearls. Do you have a photo of the ring it came out of?

 

[seadancer]

Hi Pattye, no unfortunately the band was broken on the ring so it went with other small items to be scrapped..I have been collecting antique jewellery for over 40 years and am familiar with the different era designs ect. The ring would have come from around the 30s-40s..to early for Chinese fresh water pearls....and the ring was made to fit this pearl.

 

[Orient]

The growth features on the "base" area look like they are quite characteristic of pearls that were attached to a shell at one time, so this may well be a true blister pearl as opposed to a blister which it certainly does NOT look to be from the images. My guess is saltwater.