Recent content by bfgnum10

I have a very similar strand from the 80s as well! Mine are definitely Chinese. The size on those in your photo is what I would expect out of a Chinese fw pearl in the 70s and early 80s. Absolutely agree Strack is the best! It would be nice if I could find somewhere she goes into more detail...

From the GIA website. I mentions a bit about size and Chinese pearls vouching well that they only came in rice shapes and small

Wow so it's definitely possible it's a Chinese pearl. My question still remains on what were the size of those pearls as it mentions they were marketed together. I'm not sure if they mean as equals to a large biwa at the time or as smaller rice pearls that would be accompanied by a genuine Biwa...

Thank you so much!

This is exactly what I thought it is. A genuine Biwa pearl produced from lake biwa. The appraiser said China started to produce large cultured freshwater pearls in the 1960s. But everything I can find says they were small rice pearls at that time and didn't get larger until the mid 80s.

The pedant was custom made in the mid 1970s for my grandmother in Vancouver Canada. My question is everything I can find says Chinese pearls in the 1970s were all rice pearls and very small. Is that correct or were they already making larger pearls of this quality?

Apologies, I hadn't realized I didn't click reply when I left a comment. Would this be an unusually large size for a genuine Biwa pearl from that time period? I have so much trouble finding any comparables online. It's all Chinese stuff that uses the name biwa now. It seems almost impossible...

Would this be an unusually large size for a fresh water Biwa?

Little bit of background information. The pendant is custom made in the 1970s for my grandma in Vancouver Canada. It's set in 14 K Gold has gas a natural accent diamond. The Pearl is 17 mm by 7 mm by 5 mm deep. I've been told that's quite large and rare for a freshwater Keshi from the 70s so I'm...

Wow thank you so much for this information! I have a little update. I talked to my grandmother and she informed me that this piece was actually created in Vancouver Canada as a custom pieces for her from my Grandfather. The date was late 60s or early 70s. I'm guessing like you said Biwa pearls...

This was my grandmothers and it was a gift from my grandfather in the 1960s. He travelled often as he was in the Airforce