A Wednesday morning little mystery...

FrenchPearl

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Feb 9, 2013
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This is a strand of pearls that I've followed for a couple of months. I followed it because everything seems "off" in this listing hence interesting for my pearl continuing education.
I had start forgetting about it, but this morning, the listing has disappeared, there was a weird flashing message "this listing has been blocked per country regulation blabla..." before a screen saying the item was not available anymore.

Here is a little background:

The strand was initially listed as a unique saltwater natural necklace of the highest quality (beginning of the century), by an Italian vendor with less than 20 ratings and selling mostly computer electronics. price around $1200. Size of the pearls are not mentioned. clasp is 18K white gold with small emerald brilliant.

It seems to me like an overpriced old akoya used necklace sold by a seller who knew nothing about pearls.
necklace.jpgNecklace2.jpg

Still, I asked a few questions challenging naturals, and wondering about the transparent pearls near the clasps, and ask for better pics. No answer for 3 weeks. Then an answer came, with a link with the item relisted as "cultured" , same price and better close up pictures and a new title in English :) I saved a few pictures.

PEARL01.jpgPEARL02f.jpgPEARL10.jpgPEARL11.jpgPEARL14.jpgPEARL17.jpg

2 days later (yesterday), the listing had disappeared with the weird flashing screen mentioned above, and the vendor has no more items to sell....

Do I smell a mystery or is it just my fertile imagination ?
What do you all think of this necklace ???
 
Definitely look cultured to me, but also that emerald looks like a paste stone. Look at that one pearl in the neck shot, wtf is up with that? Looks like another fake pearl there.
Such a mystery with a weird delisting like that. I wonder if it will reappear?
 
theory: if they WERE valuable and hard-to-replace natural pearls, and one wanted to preserve the style/shape of the necklace, and one had lost some pearls due to breakage or just age of the silk, might one replace just the lost pearls with little unassuming glass beads? just to maintain the necklace as close to original as possible?
 
theory: if they WERE valuable and hard-to-replace natural pearls, and one wanted to preserve the style/shape of the necklace, and one had lost some pearls due to breakage or just age of the silk, might one replace just the lost pearls with little unassuming glass beads? just to maintain the necklace as close to original as possible?

Sure. But so many of the pearls look odd, that it makes one wonder about the whole thing. Very interesting. :)
 
Definitely look cultured to me, but also that emerald looks like a paste stone. Look at that one pearl in the neck shot, wtf is up with that? Looks like another fake pearl there.
Such a mystery with a weird delisting like that. I wonder if it will reappear?

Good catch. Simulant emeralds - even glass - were popular back then. :)
 
You guys are sooooo good. It takes you a 30 sec look and you know ! My instinct told me it was old akoya, but I could not tell why.... never even thought of the stone on the clasp as a clue. Thanks for the learnings !
 
For sure they are fake pearls. As for it disappearing an eBayer probably reported the seller for incorrectly listing items. Other possibility is that it was a stolen photo and the seller you contacted had to contact the actual seller for more photographs. Sounds like he was just a rip off merchants and eBay got rid of him. Until he starts up again under another name that is. :(

New sellers can only list X amount of items over X amount of time until they prove they are to be trusted. This is another possibility. Buyers may not have received purchased items.

Dawn - Bodecia
http://www.ebay.com/sch/dawncee333/m.html
eBay Seller ID dawncee333 Natural pearl collector & seller. And all round pearl lover.
 
Other possibility is that it was a stolen photo and the seller you contacted had to contact the actual seller for more photographs. Sounds like he was just a rip off merchants and eBay got rid of him. Until he starts up again under another name that is. :(

OMG people actually do that?!
 
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