I am wearing these today and thought I'd post a photo, and their story.
In fall of 1988 I vacationed for a few weeks in a small village south of Cape Town, South Africa. All up and down the coast one hardly knows where to point one's camera, and no panoramic view is wide enough to capture the beauty of the bays.
One day some local friends invited me go see the Cape Point and the old lighthouse there. There was a gift shop nearby where I bought this strand of imitation pearls. They were lustrous, and I wanted to mail a souvenir to my mother. Probably I assumed they were FWP at the time. They were not very costly. Mom liked them a lot and wore them occasionally. After she passed, I kept them.
They remind me of my visit to the Cape Point and of my mother, and I enjoy them.
I post them here because I once saw a necklace of SS keshi on Paspaley's website that look quite a bit like these. I grabbed the photo and post it for comparison.
Moral of the story: There are some good fakes out there! If you like to look for pearls at antique / consignment / thrift shops/ estate sales, carry a loupe! A loupe is not expensive and can help you not to make expensive buying mistakes. These fakes are lustrous to the naked eye, but they fail the loupe test. (And they feel slippery when rubbed together.)
There is nothing wrong with buying (or wearing) fakes, but don't mistake them for real pearls!
