Grandma's Pearl Necklace...????

[stinalynn428]

I work at a small jewelry store, and I am a DCA certified diamontologist, but I know little about pearls!
I just received a 25" strand of pearls that were my grandmothers. They are cream-colored with a white gold clasp. (The clasp is unique, I have never seen it before). They are very dirty, so I am having my jeweler re-string them to 18", replace with a new white gold fillagree clasp, and create two pairs of earstuds, one for me and one for my mom.
The pearls were in a small blue-green bad, almost the color of Tiffany's. The bag had a signature, I think it was Lisa DeAgyio (something to that effect). It was a true signature, not a reproduction. If it helps, my grandmother was born and raised in Texas, but the pearls could be from anywhere. Does anyone have an idea what type of pearls these are, or if anyone has heard of this designer? I was going to have an appraiser look at the pearls when they were done being re-strung.
Thanks for all the help!

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Hi and welcome to Pearl-Guide!

How lovely that you inherited some pearls from your grandmother!

I hope you will post photos of them when they are restrung. It would be great to see some close-up photos without flash, indoor natural light, with the pearls on a white paper towel. A close up or two of the clasp with any markings on the metal, and a close-up photo of the bag with the signature would also be great! We may then be able to offer some opinions.

But since they are being restrung by a jeweler, perhaps the jeweler can also have a close look at them and tell you if they are genuine (Akoyas, probably) or imitation-- the surface of cultured pearls looks much smoother under 10x magnification than imitation pearls do, but it's rougher if two pearls are rubbed gently together than imitation pearls would be.