The Dodge Pearls

[Nerida]

Nerida:
Your friend must be a person of great sensitivity.
Fur jackets, stoles, and coats are truly beautiful despite the fact that they are no longer in vogue due to over hunting of so many species. But they really were beautiful when well made. It truly was a different era.
barbie

I would never buy a new fur, and probably wouldn't even wear an old one, but I do think they are beautiful...
I do have lovely friends, and yes Barbie, this one is a particularly sensitive woman. She also "rescued" a whole bunch of letters from this skip, all written in German and bound with ribbon, that she is having interpreted as we speak. An interesting person!

 

[Miriam Reed]

Lovely clasp. Fancy having pearls like those and only wearing them twice in her lifetime.

 

[barbie biggs]

You know, I have been so busy looking at the pearls, her decolletage, and the furs that I only just now realized how long her neck is. She's a great 'pearl horse'.

Caitlin: Did we talk about the size of those pearls? How many Freshadama strands would it take to recreate that in full length?

 

[Hanaleimom]

Did anyone see her pearl ring?

 

[barbie biggs]

Kitty noses?

This is a reference to bilateral surgery reducing size of a womans umm chest. Since I work in a hospital I have been privy to a number of these. The surgeon cuts around the round part making it much smaller while keeping it connected to its inner workings. He then removes the heavier tissue which may be causing the woman back pain or arm problems, (whatever the issue is). When he is done he stitches the now smaller round 'nose' back to two carefully smaller sides which have a line stitched directly below the circle. This line goes up and down or north and south so to speak. There is also a reattachment east and west that follows the line of the chest wall so it is usually a graceful curve.

The end result looks a bit like the nose and mouth of a cheshire cat. It produces a very perky look.

Perfect for pearls in a sheath dress and it dramatically reduces the length of decolletage.

Where I work this is mostly done for medical reasons. In L.A. of course many people do it for cosmetic reasons. Difference of income and perspective perhaps. At any rate I have never heard anyone say they wished they hadn't done it.

I once worked with a woman who had 12 pounds removed this way. 6 on each side. The equivalent of 24 cubes of butter per side. She can wear a lot more pearls now. And walking, working, even dealing with a hot summer are all much easier for her.

I'm not sure if our plastic surgeons think pearls are good for recovery.
Still waiting to find out if they have healing or regenerative powers.

barbie

 

[Caitlin]

Did we talk about the size of those pearls? How many Freshadama strands would it take to recreate that in full length?

I can't guess, maybe Inge will know....

That is a painting of Mrs. Dodge. I think she draped the dress to show all the pearls on skin. They did not wear bras back then and if she asked for no decollete showing, it would not be showing.

 

[barbie biggs]

Nerida:
This is becoming something from a different era too with the advent of the computer:
all written in German and bound with ribbon,
The world moves so fast now hardly anybody writes letters anymore.
barbie

Caitlin: I keep coming back to look at that necklace. It's just grand isn't it?

 

[Nerida]

Me too - I keep coming back to the lovely necklace - just so much more grand and from a day when people "dressed" for an occasion for than they do now. It would completely swamp me, though!

 

[Caitlin]

We'll have to keep track of the sale amount

 

[jerin]

It would help to know the size of the pearls but I have a rope of 246 cm and it contains 272 pearls in the size 8,2 - 9,6 mm. I don?t think any of her pearls are that large but I think the strand could well be around 1,70 m. In that case 4 Freshadama princes lengths with pearls the size 8,5 - 8,7 mm. If her pearls are smaller, say 7,5 - 8 mm that of course would mean at least another Freshadama princess length. Just guessingAnd I just now watched the strands again and there seem many of the pearls to be substancially smaller than 7 mm as they are graduated.

 

[judimcc6]

Caitlin,

Where did you hear about this sale? And what, originally, attracted you to this piece? I mean, aside from the stunning quality of the natural pearls. There are so many pieces of jewelry, in history, that have an amazing history themselves.

 

[Caitlin]

Hi judi
Someone posted about the sale a couple of weeks ago. Then I got the email press release from Josephine Olley at Bonham's. Then I answered it and asked for photos of the pearls.

Except for the Baroda pearls, I think this piece is about as magnificent as it gets for natural pearls. I check out the auction houses once in a while and see natural pearl necklaces for sale, almost all of which have smaller off round pearls.

Umm Kalthoun's pearl breastplate is very interesting, but not in American taste. There is also much variety in the sizes and shapes of the natural pearls used in it. We have a thread or two about that one too.