found a pearl in the Netherlands

[RSN]

Dear All,

Last sunday we where looking for oysters, which we found, and one of them had a pearl in it!

Location: Netherlands / Zeeland

It had a diameter of 4.7mm and a bit shaped like a tear drop.

Could you advise us what to do with it? It's a lovely souvenir but would it also be worth anything? The color is not as white as far as I have seen with other pearls. This one has a bit a try in it.

Hope you can see the pics and many thanks for your assistance!

regards,

Ronald

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

Food grade oysters are genus ostrea. Like your pearl, they rarely present with the highly nacreous surfaces that we'll see in pearls and shells from pterioda or mytilid (pearl oysters).

Cooking may destroy the protein composition at the surface of a pearl, leaving a dull, matte finish once dried.

Very often we are asked about pearls found in beach oysters or on dinner plates. Finding a pearl in these is not uncommon, but to any individual it's a rare event. Their value is the experience not the piece. In almost every instance, we'll advise the finder to retain their pearl as a keepsake and a tale of adventure or discovery.

Thank you for showing us your find.

 

[dmj]

Hoi Ronald,

the value in holland is weird, we are the largest natural pearl dealers here and we sometimes get people in with these also saying what dave says that their value is the experience not the piece.

however auction results tell another story the last auction was a mussel with 21 small pearls in there and went for 2600 euro the estimate was 4000 while if you would like this quality from us you pay prob less then 10 % of that so the hype sets the price here, holland is small so a hype is easily set the moment its found in a restaurant you will prob get in the newspaper with it

http://nos.nl/artikel/2068671-opbrengst-veiling-bijzondere-oester-valt-tegen.html

a artikel about the last one i know was for auction half a year ago

its a fun find and a good story so i can only advise keep it and its story !

met vriendelijke groet,
Daniel

 

[RSN]

Thanks for your info and advise!

Only the search for the oysters is already fun and then finding this pearl made it even better!

We have seen the articles in the Dutch newspaper and I believe I also heard them at that time...however we never thought of finding one ourselves and having our own story around it! That is most of the fun .

Cheers en met vriendelijke groet,

Ronald