My Natural Pearl Collection

[vroom]

The wire cage earrings are emeralds; thank you for the lovely complements!

Don't mean to be a wet blanket but unless the colors came through all wrong the caged stones are aquamarines and I love them.

The two blue stones in the pendant appear to be zircons and magnificent.

Of course looking at images on the web should not be taken as wrote.

 

[pearl-man]

Without lot of blah blah. I have bought natural American pearls since 1965. I have enjoyed traveling up and down the Upper Mississippi as part of my Territory. Occasionally, (emphasis added) I would encounter some to buy. Often I had little more than curiosity and no money. Not being allowed to pick I ended up with lots of slugs. One time I passed up three bags each weighing couple kilos.
Regarding value, A GIA cert helps give the buyer confidence of its origin. At least it did on the last time I used them for a cert, 10 years ago. If you like natural pearls you might like to read an article in the Spring issue of Wisconsin Magazine of History I helped research and added the pearls for the photo portion. I wasn't the main author, as you can tell here I have no writing capability.

See this >>>>http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/wmh/id/50925/rec/3

Many of the finest photos were not printed. We have many more but most are newspaper and not originals so reproduction is unclear and often blurred. Not to mention that newspapers from the late 1800's and early 1900's are in short supply. Endless topic

Norm

 

[MSC]

hey thanks for the article, awesome photos! american freshwater pearls are my faves by far
those earrings are emeralds, but the color in the photo on screen does look bluish, they'd be pretty as aquas too.

does anybody know if there is some sort of pearl size to carat weight chart out there? i'm guessing different types of pearls have different masses...

 

[pearl-man]

Good Day
While assisting writing about the natural pearls of the Upper Mississippi River Basin and organizing my collection and from the research the formula I discovered is to square the weight as a basis
to start. Then you can multiply by any number you want 5-10-20-30 depending how round it is. Slugs have nearly no value. My associate who is on the River says $25-50 covers most of them.
I think it is a question of beauty and not source when the sizes and shapes are not significant. At a time when pearls were much more desired than now the slugs were sent to India and China to
be ground up for all types of purposes. Some Chinese used them in their eyes as some kind of elixer ???. During their heyday they were collected by the 50lb grain sacks and sorted and sent to
various locations outside the US. Some speial ones went to Tiffany and others here or in Europe.
I still have magazine articles available if you would like one.
A 5 or 6 mm round could bring a hundred or so with a GIA cert. If it is a button then the value gets difficult. They are irreplaceable no matter what and the mountings you have are very nice and
suitable for the pearls.
Norm

 

[Daddys Little Pearl]

Fabulous collection, hope you are planning on keeping them! I second the suggestion about the safe deposit box, that solves the insurance problem for now, and a tiny shot glass with a little water in it inside the container to protect the pearls is what our local fine jewelry pearl wholesaler recommends. Your pearls should be safe unless the bank literally blows up. Don't pick a bank in a flood zone however. For 20 bucks or so get a small portable gram scale, any local pawn shop or jeweler can tell you where to find one in your city, then you can weigh your own jewelry. On those that have the gold marked as to its fineness, you can go to a site called "silver recyclers", and insert your weights by either grams or pennyweight (dwp) and enter the correct fineness of gold (or silver if you have that too), and get a pretty accurate SCRAP value for the gold. That would be the least your item would be worth without the pearls. Multiply that by at least 2 times or more for retail value, in your case as these are old, probably multiply it by 4. Then go to several of the fine pearls sites on the web, such as Pearl Paradise to get an idea on RETAIL prices for the pearls, then check ebay for a general idea of WHOLESALE TO LOW RETAIL for the pearls, etc and get an idea of what the pearls go for unmounted. On any unmarked jewelry that you think is real gold, assume 10K which is usually the lowest fineness that would be used (although they did some pretty fabulous antique jewelry in gold filled as well). Doing all this actually takes very little time and will give you a ball park amount of the least and a guess as to retail for your collection. In the evenings while relaxing at your tv is a good time to cruise RubyLane where you very well might find things similar to yours, those prices would be low to high retail.
All the pieces are quite lovely, you are very lucky! P.S Do not store any of the jewelry that has pearls in plastic bags for any length of time, get some cheap velvet bags or wrap them in small pieces of fabric when putting in the lock box. A home safe would work also, but if you get robbed, most crooks are strong enough to dislodge and just carry a small safe out the door.

Daddys Little Pearl

Antiques Jewelry & Sacred Treasures on RubyLane

 

[MSC]

I just wanted to add a quick update to this thread (my first): I have finally finished photographing my jewelry collection, including the pearls, and creating an index with concise descriptions. The next step will be to write fully detailed descriptions!
I also wanted to add a piece that I received for my birthday this year (quite a while ago now), the large pearls appear to be cultured and maybe are replacements(?). What do you all think? Happy Sunday!

 

[GemGeek]

The large pearls may very well be replacements, but they are beautiful! Can we get a neck shot?

 

[MSC]

I will definitely post a neck shot later today!

edited: to add neck shot

 

[Bodecia]

Love all of your jewellery but especially the Emerald necklace and the pearl necklace you just posted. Don't just presume those large pearls are replacements and therefore cultured. They may very well be original and natural pearls. Can you take up close photos of the large pearls and take some from the sides as well. Plus the back of the necklace.

All so wonderful. Lucky you. Have you worked out an approximate value of them.


Dawn - Bodecia
http://www.ebay.com/sch/dawncee333/m.html
eBay Seller ID dawncee333 Natural pearl collector & seller. And all round pearl lover.

 

[MSC]

Thanks, Dawn!
I haven't figured out a valuation for either of the necklaces yet, mostly because I haven't been looking for any similar pieces. But also because the emerald necklace was a frankenproject I put together and I have no idea how to valuate something like that. The central component is the antique part and I made the rest of the necklace around it. The pearls on the chain are just CFWP, but someday I'd like to replace those with P. sterna.

Some back and side views of the big pearls. It would be awesome if they were naturals, but I'm not holding my breath on that one

 

[Bodecia]

I did a really quick calculation in my head, and I do mean quick, going by eBay type prices and what I thought the might be worth. That is without really knowing exactly what I was looking at Okay get my drift. It came out at $25,000 to $30,000. For what it is worth. I don't know what kind of money you are hoping they may be worth but that is the rough figure I came up with. If the pearls are naturals that is. The emeralds half decent ones etc. The big citrine looking ring wasn't something that really appealed to me but that is just me. Not that I might not have worn it when I was younger but our tastes change. The emerald necklace you worked on is lovely. Especially that emerald. I wondered at the wire wrapping, you did a very good job.

Re the big pearls does one have a drill hole at the top or is that a minor blemish. They are very beautiful but I wouldn't stick my neck out over them. The hanging ones surely must be river pearls so maybe the big ones are too. If so you would have possibly a Mississippi or other US river pearl necklace which would have to be worth a few bob. The big ones have the look of stretched silk to them. That is just a way I think of that look. I have seen it before in big natural river pearls so do have them checked out. Do let us know.


Dawn - Bodecia
http://www.ebay.com/sch/dawncee333/m.html
eBay Seller ID dawncee333 Natural pearl collector & seller. And all round pearl lover.

 

[Bodecia]

Just one more thought on the pearl necklace with huge pearls. The setting looks like it was made for the pearls - that says something. Get them checked out.

Dawn - Bodecia
http://www.ebay.com/sch/dawncee333/m.html
eBay Seller ID dawncee333 Natural pearl collector & seller. And all round pearl lover.

 

[MSC]

That number is HUGE and I appreciate your even coming up with one no matter how quick and dirty I have more pearl jewelry, but it's more or less minor stuff, comparatively speaking.

Yes, stretched silk, that is a really good description of those big pearls. That look is what made me think maybe they were cultured. I have never seen American freshwaters that large in person before, so I can't really say myself. But I agree with you on the rest of the pearls, they look like American river pearls to me. Maybe I'll ask to have the necklace sent to GIA for my next bday It would be nice to know definitively on those bigguns! And of course, I will most certainly post in this thread on the outcome.

Thank you for the nice comments on my emerald franken-necklace! I love doing wire work, though I'd love to do more advanced stuff too... someday

 

[Bodecia]

Do remember I don't know the sizes of most of your pearls or gems and if it is all gold. I did another rough count - fast again and still came up with over $20,000. The bracelet is another special piece and it only takes 3 or 4 really good pieces to add up quickly. But what they might be worth and what you could sell them for is a different matter. Still you must have a small fortune there. I still don't think I am too far out although I do know I am sticking my neck out.

Good luck.

Dawn - Bodecia
http://www.ebay.com/sch/dawncee333/m.html
eBay Seller ID dawncee333 Natural pearl collector & seller. And all round pearl lover.

 

[MSC]

I just went back to the first post in this thread and saw that I didn't add any sort of description (what a newb!).
I should do that and maybe add the rest of my lesser pieces too. Maybe I should do multi-views of each piece with descriptions in separate posts to the thread? That would certainly get me going with the more complete descriptions that I've procrastinated
No worries, Dawn, your neck is safe!

 

[Caitlin]

I seriously doubt the pearls were replaced on the necklace. I think the necklace was made to showcase those two pearls in the larger collection- Like it was designed to use the pearls at hand. and I do not think they are cultured- In any case it is an exquisite piece of jewelry.

 

[hbyrne]

What an AMAZING collection! I, for one, am suffering from a huge attack of jewellery envy! Some of them are pretty much museum pieces.

 

[MSC]

Thank you Helen, I've got some envy of your pieces as well!

Caitlin, I never thought of it from that perspective, but I could see someone doing that. I would certainly do something like that. The bottom part of the necklace center can be removed so the necklace can be worn in a more casual manner.

 

[Bodecia]

Hi Caitlin, so glad you are thinking what I am thinking. Aren't they marvellous..

Helen, me too.

Yes mad……. please do give us the details. You will have to virtually start again but it will be worth it for all of us.

Glad my neck won't be chopped off But your last necklace (big pearls) is the focus of all. Don't let it slip out of your fingers unless it is in my direction. Hah. Seriously do keep them safe.

Dawn - Bodecia
http://www.ebay.com/sch/dawncee333/m.html
eBay Seller ID dawncee333 Natural pearl collector & seller. And all round pearl lover.

 

[MSC]

Oh, I just watched your knotting video Caitlin, what an ingenious method!