Featured Seeking advice on selling my family jewels (in nyc)

It does have the appearance of angel skin color, which is a pale shade of red coral, not a different variety of coral.

The tooth test: pearls that are made of nacre from a mollusc, despite feeling completely smooth to the fingertips, feel grainy/gritty to your teeth when rubbed against them. Artificial pearls are slick like glass. I sort of gently nibble, using the edges of my top & bottom incisors & can detect the difference even with crowned teeth. This only differentiates between pearls born in seashells & manmade, not between natural pearls, those formed without human provocation & cultured pearls, that are farmed. Any strands of pearls you have are almost certain to be cultured, as natural pearls that are matched or graduated in size are fabulously expensive.

Not about impropriety, just practicality. When there are too many questions all together, it gets unwieldy.

 

Natural South Seas pearls in a matching or graduated strand can really rake in the dough, but it may take 20 years to assemble one strand. The only natural pearls I'e ever owned, as opposed to cultured, are 70s and 80s "rice pearls"; they're Asian freshwater pearls that look like grains of rice. They don't or didn't have a following years ago, but look nice in multi-strand necklaces.

That said, as others said, precious metal clasps up the probability of real cultured pearls. Sterling clasps were used with faux pearls , so gold ones are better indicators. If you can't tooth-test, take a loupe to the bead holes. If they're painted, you'll see it or will with a little practice.

 

Another vote for an auction house.

Exactly. Even if I were to reply about one ring, I would have to explain which one I actually mean. Too much hassle, so I usually don't say anything about jewellery presented like that.
One per post so we can say post #etc helps us to help you.

 

Well I am glad I posted as I did as it actually netted me the advice I was looking for.

 

It was friendly advice, which didn't warrant such a reply. You got the advice you were looking for in spite of your mass posting, not because of it, and you know it.

In spite of your tone, I'll advise you again to in future help us to help you.

 

I am in agreement with this. Greatest return for the least commission. Selling to dealers would probably be the worst option ... IMHO.

 

...unless I'm one of the dealers!

 

ok...

 

FYI, I was told by someone who knew pearls many years ago, to not do the tooth test as teeth are stronger than pearls, and can possibly scratch them. It's better to gently rub a strand together to see if you can feel some friction from the grit. They are also cooler to the touch than imitation pearls.

 

The operative word is 'gently'. I would not push you to do something you have been advised against by someone whose opinion you respect, I'll just give you my experience.

This has come up in the forum before, & I want to say right off that not everyone agrees with my personal method of using the edges of my incisors to do the test; others prefer to rub a pearl against the flat of a tooth.

Tooth enamel & nacre are both composed mainly of forms of calcium, so the difference in hardness is probably not great. In fact, checking my mineral guide, the Moh's hardness of ivory - elephant tooth enamel - is less than that of pearl.

You don't need to test every pearl in a strand; one will suffice. I find artificial pearls are so slick that a single pass is enough to identify them. Genuine pearls are variable in their degree of graininess. Some I can feel sure about with just a light 'nibble' or two, sometimes three. When I'm really uncertain I test a pearl I know to be artificial & the contrast becomes stark.

In short, the amount of hazard you are exposing the pearls to is really minimal. You only need to do it the once, after all, not as a daily ritual. I can understand wanting to be very cautious when testing pearls that belong to someone else, but your own...

When it comes to perceived coolness, I have not spent the time to test this out, but, being smoother, I would expect artificial pearls generally to feel cooler to first touch than nacre would. I'm thinking of good quality artificial pearls, not some kind of plastic.

The few trials I made of rubbing pearls in a strand against each other showed me that if I relied on this kind of test to ascertain genuine vs. artificial, I'd mistakenly write off everything as artificial. Maybe your sense of touch is more sensitive than mine.

 

If the tooth test freaks you out, take a loupe to the holes where the string runs through. Most times it's glaringly ovbious when they're costume.

 

I'll be honest- I still do or try to do the tooth test, but was just putting that out there regardless... in fact, I remember my father telling me about this when I was just a boy, and that's why I suspect at least one of these strands must be real as I really feeling the grit way back then. I didn't mean to imply that I do not respect your advice- so my apologies if it came off that way.

Due to the recommendation in this thread about perhaps using an auction house, I did some research and got "lucky", as I saw that I reputable Philadelphia/NJ based auction house Rago, is having a jewelry evaluation event on the 19th so I made an appointment. In the least I figure I can find out if any of these pearls are real...

 

To my eye, only the middle pic one has a chance to be real cultivated pearls, the two others are imitation for me

 

I've heard only good things about Rago....

 

Yes, I know of a few people who use to sell mcm/industrial things there years ago, and their location in Lambertville- has sadly become really hyped up with the wealthy and "famous" moving there and to New Hope. Both those towns growing up use to be very fun, funky, historic places with antique stores, places selling bongs and records, etc. I still go for "shad fest" through.

 

Please report back on the auction house!