Please tell me these are Akoya 🫣

I

Izzie

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I bought this 2 years ago as just a pearl necklace and I put them away. But since joining this amazing forum I’ve been digging out all the pearls I’ve collected and trying to figure out if they are just Chinese fresh water pearls or something more special.
This one looks to me like Vintage Akoya because the mark on the clasps says silver which is the Japanese way of marking sterling silver and the baby pearl on the clasp kind of indicates to me that it might just be Akoya. Is it? 🫣🫣
 

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Just out of curiousity and to also gain more knowledge on identifying these pearls, why do you think it’s freshwater and not Akoya?
 
Perle magnifique said:
Я согласен с вами
Click to expand...
Using Google to translate from Russian, this reads:

"I agree with you".
Izzie said:
Just out of curiousity and to also gain more knowledge on identifying these pearls, why do you think it’s freshwater and not Akoya?
Click to expand...
The surface characteristics, the shape, the color, even the way it's connected to the clasp.
Basically it's experience, from seeing a lot of pearls.
 
Izzie said:
I bought this 2 years ago as just a pearl necklace and I put them away. But since joining this amazing forum I’ve been digging out all the pearls I’ve collected and trying to figure out if they are just Chinese fresh water pearls or something more special.
This one looks to me like Vintage Akoya because the mark on the clasps says silver which is the Japanese way of marking sterling silver and the baby pearl on the clasp kind of indicates to me that it might just be Akoya. Is it? 🫣🫣
Click to expand...
Here is the problem... They have been restrung... which could mean several of things: new pearls on an old clasp? or just restring in a more modern way. The other BIG issue is that the camera will make pearls look a little off round in your hand. Put them on a papertowel (It helps the camera) & take one straight on with lots of white surrounding the pearls (a towel?) to bounce light. That gives a much better idea of how round the pearls are. I have some Akoyas that are about the age of your clasp that are not as round as I would like...but I can tell that the nacre is fairly thick and made some pearls a bit more oblong than I would like...but overall my pearls are round Akoyas. (As always make sure you test grit & look at drill holes to make sure there is no paint build up... some fauxs are pretty good...even the same clasp.)
 
A Breaker said:
Here is the problem... They have been restrung... which could mean several of things: new pearls on an old clasp? or just restring in a more modern way. The other BIG issue is that the camera will make pearls look a little off round in your hand. Put them on a papertowel (It helps the camera) & take one straight on with lots of white surrounding the pearls (a towel?) to bounce light. That gives a much better idea of how round the pearls are. I have some Akoyas that are about the age of your clasp that are not as round as I would like...but I can tell that the nacre is fairly thick and made some pearls a bit more oblong than I would like...but overall my pearls are round Akoyas. (As always make sure you test grit & look at drill holes to make sure there is no paint build up... some fauxs are pretty good...even the same clasp.)
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I see what you mean about the pearls looking off round in the photo. I’ll retake photos of the pearls following your suggestions. The pearls are really round which is why I thought they might be akoya. Let me retake the photo and see what the verdict is afterwards. Btw I tested for grit and checked holes to make sure they were pearls.
 
I don’t know if these photos makes it any better 😩 but here they are.
 

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That helps a lot. I will go with akoyas now based on those photos. They are not all fully round but that happens with akoyas, and I see one in your second photo that looks a bit like one of my more gnarly baroque akoyas.

I would clean them and restring them.

Screenshot 2025-10-23 at 3.01.49 PM.png
 
Izzie said:
I don’t know if these photos makes it any better 😩 but here they are.
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These are perfect & so much more accurate!!!!! (It really is accurate that counts over instagram worthy) I don't know how a photo, background, angle or whatever can make them seem so oval...but it does! ...
 
There are lots of different ways to restring.. If you haven't done it before...get a kit from Pattye...the best thread ever!!!... & you get the needles & frenchwire. (even if you have...get Pattye's thread!!) Then check out the tutorials on the lowly beaders thread. I now can restring several different ways.
 
Laughing... I just had someone Msg me that a graduated strand meant the pearls were "real akoyas". Of course the strand was "real" imitations...peeling & all!!! They used google lens and it told them akoyas. Sometimes google lens give you just enough info to think you know something...when it is just trying its best, but isn't all that good at matching details in photos. Thought you all might enjoy a chuckle!
 
A Breaker said:
Laughing... I just had someone Msg me that a graduated strand meant the pearls were "real akoyas". Of course the strand was "real" imitations...peeling & all!!! They used google lens and it told them akoyas. Sometimes google lens give you just enough info to think you know something...when it is just trying its best, but isn't all that good at matching details in photos. Thought you all might enjoy a chuckle!
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This really made me chuckle because ive just gone through a bag of vintage pearl necklaces with Japan and sterling clasps (graduating and non graduating and they were all fake pearls...yes..peeling..lol. Only one broken necklace was real pearls and likely akoya and that made me really happy... I'll send photos later just for giggles...lol
 
Yup, lots of fake graduated strands out there! But that's logical, right? Back when most pearl strands were graduated, of course the fakes would be, too, the better to imitate.
 
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