Hi,
I'm new to this site and pearls except that my mother wore them. She passed away a few years ago and some of the things she left me were pearls. My father was born in Russia in 1917 and my mother was born in San Francisco in 1920 with Russian immigrant parents. My father's parents left Russia during the revolution in 1920 and immigrated to Harbin, China. My father attended a Russian Institute in Harbin learning Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Korean, and a total of 11 different languages. His parents died when he was in his early 20s and he started a small translation business. At about age 28, he joined the British Army as an honoree Major due to his language skills.
In post-war Japan, my mother was a civilian employee at the US embassy and my father was with the British embassy. They met through mutual friends and ended up getting married in the first Russian Orthodox Church in Japan, founded by my great, great grandfather (?). My father's first job in the US was at the Monterey Language School teaching Russian. They then moved to Berkeley were his first job was co-authoring a Mongolian-English-Mongolian dictionary and then teaching Russian at UC Berkeley for 45+ years.
To make a long story even longer...when my parents were in Japan, they visited Mikimoto's pearl farm and, some where in storage, I have a photo of my mother and Kokichi Mikimoto taken by my father when they bought loose pearls and graduated necklaces.
My parents passed away about 7 years ago. I would like to keep some of the pearls, but would also like to sell some. I think the some of the necklaces were restrung at Hinks Department Store in the 1960's. Some of the larger pearls were made into earrings.
My research on the internet comes up with wildly different values. Could any one here give a rough idea of what these might be worth?
Thanks,
Paul
I'm new to this site and pearls except that my mother wore them. She passed away a few years ago and some of the things she left me were pearls. My father was born in Russia in 1917 and my mother was born in San Francisco in 1920 with Russian immigrant parents. My father's parents left Russia during the revolution in 1920 and immigrated to Harbin, China. My father attended a Russian Institute in Harbin learning Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Korean, and a total of 11 different languages. His parents died when he was in his early 20s and he started a small translation business. At about age 28, he joined the British Army as an honoree Major due to his language skills.
In post-war Japan, my mother was a civilian employee at the US embassy and my father was with the British embassy. They met through mutual friends and ended up getting married in the first Russian Orthodox Church in Japan, founded by my great, great grandfather (?). My father's first job in the US was at the Monterey Language School teaching Russian. They then moved to Berkeley were his first job was co-authoring a Mongolian-English-Mongolian dictionary and then teaching Russian at UC Berkeley for 45+ years.
To make a long story even longer...when my parents were in Japan, they visited Mikimoto's pearl farm and, some where in storage, I have a photo of my mother and Kokichi Mikimoto taken by my father when they bought loose pearls and graduated necklaces.
My parents passed away about 7 years ago. I would like to keep some of the pearls, but would also like to sell some. I think the some of the necklaces were restrung at Hinks Department Store in the 1960's. Some of the larger pearls were made into earrings.
My research on the internet comes up with wildly different values. Could any one here give a rough idea of what these might be worth?
Thanks,
Paul
