Featured Questions about antique seed pearl brooch & earrings

I bought this set about 12 years ago for $20 thinking it was probably Victorian, and possibly natural pearls, but not gold since it's not marked. I've had it stored away, but decided to get it out and see if I could find anything similar online.

I found a similar brooch that sold on eBay for $1250 "Antique Victorian 14k-15k Yellow Gold Pave Seed Pearl Pin Brooch" so I decided to do a gold test on mine and even the 22K acid didn't completely dissolve the streak of gold (although my testing acid is old, so maybe not reliable). Could it be gold plated?

Since the pin stem is long, could it be from the Georgian era, or is it Victorian? I'm away from home for a week, and don't have it with me, so I can't look closer for any marks, but I'm pretty sure there aren't any.

 

Those are gorgeous! Did you test them with 14k acid?

Check the ear wires and inside the c-clasp, do you see anything where I've circled?

If no marks and you're not sure about the test results take it to a jeweler who will test it for you just so you know

I hope you wear them, they are special!

 

Thank you, Marie. I did test with 14k and 18k acid, which didn't dissolve the gold. I'll check the ear wires and C clasp where you circled when I get home next weekend--thank you for mentioning that. I don't wear jewelry anymore, and would probably be afraid to wear them even if I did for fear of one or more of the pearls falling out.

 

Definitely older than dirt and definitely pearl. Maybe Georgian rather than Victorian. Even now, not everybody marks everything. Oh @Ownedbybear !!!! Smaug says come take a look!

 

Yum. Those earrings are so well made, too. I’m inclined to late Georgian into early Victorian. They’re less fussy than later ones and designed to show off the pearls. Which will be real.

 

Yep, those are stunning. I would own and wear those in a heartbeat. Really amazing looking!

 

Thank you all so much for your comments and to those who said real pearls and late Georgian or early Victorian. Does anyone know how the pearls are attached? I'm wondering if they're each drilled and glued onto a post. Or are they strung on a wire and then the wire is somehow wired to the base.

 

Not glued for sure. Possibly wired.

 

Wouldn't that originally been part of a parure?

Debora

 

They look like they have individual clawed collet settings, no?

 

I imagine it could have had a matching necklace and a bracelet or two.

 

It doesn't seem like the settings hug the pearls or are high enough to hold them securely like prongs or a bezel setting would.

 

Absolutely STUNNING!! Breathtaking.

I'm not sure how different jewelers test, if you have a jeweler you use and trust, probably okay. But I'm remembering a horror story from the Ebay jewelry boards a few years ago. Someone had a mystery piece, looked very high quality and possibly quite old, seemed to be testing at 22K, the jeweler was so sure it was plated, somehow they talked the owner into doing a deep scratch to prove their point. Well, it WAS 22K, but now it had a big scratch! Just be sure you ask how they test if you go that route.

If you don't use a jeweler and selling, you could also show the results from the 14K and the 18K and the 22K and let the buyer see the acid test. It's pretty clear from the photos the extreme quality in these.

Remind me what you paid? $20? Great eye 12 year ago!!

 

Yikes! All the jewelers I know have XRF machines so no sampling necessary. I definitely recommend that route.

 

They’re often on a sort of spike thing.

 

Thank you, Lucille. I bought it in a small town antique mall. It was in a glass case and my eyes were immediately drawn to it, but since it wasn't marked, I didn't think it was karat gold. I'd been interested in antique and vintage jewelry for years and used to pore over Warman's Jewelry book and others before I discovered Google, eBay, and Antiquers.

I've only used a jeweler for testing gold a couple of times. She has a small studio and doesn't have an XRF machine, but has a Mizar electronic gold tester. She used it to test a platinum necklace that was marked in Chinese and an Italian enameled gold circle pin that was half-marked 14k on the pin stem. The Mizar confirmed 14k on the pin stem and the jeweler said the circle part was higher than 14k, possibly 18k, but she couldn't say definitely.

Since you mentioned the story about the mystery piece that tested 22k, I'm thinking my set could actually be 22k also, so I'll have it tested, but I don't know how accurate the Mizar tester is for high karat gold.

 

I wondered about the pearls being drilled and mounted on a spike/post, but the pearls are so close together and in uneven sizes that I seems like a jeweler would have to solder each post and mount each pearl one at a time, and I don't know if that can be done without damaging the pearls that are already mounted.

 

Omg! This is a to die for set!
I would say early Victorian. Late Georgian and early Victorian styles flow into each other.
Could very well be there used to be bracelets, necklace but these earrings and brooch are already a very nice demi-parure.
I don't really care if its 22/18/14 carat gold. Its gold! its amazing quality! Its 200 years old! In my opinion exact carat would really not matter value-wise. If you ever sell them, you would not sell them for scrap value.