Featured Coral or not (another)

The recent thread "Coral or not?" was interesting, and at the end a ring was posted with Mediterranean Red coral. It made me think of something my dad had jumbled in with his tie clips and cuff links. I think it's a tie clip. It's about 1.5 inches long, no marks, and the pin and round clasp appear to be gold colored base metal. So is it Mediterranean Red coral? Is there any value to something like this? I didn't want to hijack the other thread, so posting this separately.

 

It appears to be, but additional photos, including the best closeups you can manage, would help confirm.

 

After looking closer, it does say 14k on the post on the back. Here is a close up.

 

Yes, coral!

 

With the eye, the rings aren't really noticeable. I only noticed them when I made these images for this post. Are those growth rings, and is that one of the ways to tell if it's coral?

 

In my opinion it is not Mediterranean red coral because the European coral is fully red. European coral does not have white spots/vains/a white core. The above shown coral is Asian, most likely from Taiwan

 

Yes, and someting in the feeling of texture and color variations

 

Could it be Hawaiian? My dad was a shareholder in the Maui Divers company in the 1960's/70's. But he also picked up seahorse things when he found them, because the seahorse was the logo of the company he worked for. So it could have come from anywhere.

 

Yes. Features we are noticing are the striations/growth lines (channels for nutrients to get into the colony) & the uneven color, including the white patches. (I'm being pre-empted by other posts with same info.) I can't really speak to the species/origin of the coral, only to its genuineness. I have seen Victorian era coral cameos that were indistinguishable in the appearance of the material from your dad's seahorse. Don't know when jewellers began to 'source' (when did that become a verb?) coral from Asia.

 

Hawaii is known more for black coral. Don't know if they have a red species, or seahorses.

 

Not Hawaiian, it is Corallium Secundum from Taiwan. It is one of the most common corals and has the thickest branches, therefore it is commonly used in the jewelry industry

 

Your inclusion of the species name was very useful, and helped me find something in a research paper:

in 1966, Vernon Brock and Ted Chamberlain of the University of Hawaii discovered a small bed of pink coral Corallium secundum, near 400 m depth off Makapuu, Oahu...

In 1970 a long-term research program on precious corals began at the University of Hawaii and this led to the development of a selective harvesting system utilizing a manned submersible (Grigg et al., 1973; Figure 4). In 1973, Maui Divers of Hawaii incorporated this system and began a commercial operation of selective harvest for pink, gold, and bamboo coral which lasted until 1978.
​

The paper said they stopped in 1978 because of the high costs, and after that time, sourced their pink coral from Taiwan and Japan.

That was about the time my dad was involved there. His company made the cameras, lighting and other gear on submersibles, which is how he came to know Maui Divers. So it's possible they made it for him, but he could also have picked it up in a shop in Hong Kong or Taiwan.
Thanks everyone for the help. It helped me a lot in understanding this more and getting enough info to know what to search for.

 

It is lovely, smallaxe.

Welcome MaJa.
While I agree that this tie clip is most likely corallium secundum, it is not true that Mediterranean coral (corallium rubrum) is red only. There is pink and salmon too, and white spots do occur, although not often, and the pure colour is more desirable.

Corallium secundum has a slightly different colour tone from corallium rubrum, I call it coppery, if that makes sense. That is what this one has to me.
The way it is carved is not European, so that is another sign.
And if you know it was bought in a place where Asian coral was more likely, you've got the last piece of the puzzle.

So, definitely coral, and precious too, but not Mediterranean.