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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ce BCA, post: 4467126, member: 18716&quot;]Well you couldn&#039;t buy natural pearls for that price in 1984.&nbsp; It is one of those areas which is tricky - cultured pearls are real pearls, just with man made intervention and farming.&nbsp; Same as lab grown rubies are real rubies, just made in a different way.&nbsp; They may have meant real pearls rather than simulated (ie glass), which I suspect is the most likely explanation.&nbsp; Could also be bad business practice - go into many high street jewellers today and lots of the rubies and sapphires will be lab grown, but they don&#039;t tell you that anywhere.</p><p><br /></p><p>At that time pearls were relatively more expensive than they are today, the Chinese take over of the pearl business has driven prices into the ground and that has a knock on effect on the vintage market too - why pay a lot for higher quality when you can get cheap Chinese which look pretty much identical to the regular person.&nbsp; Pearls are also out of fashion, but it is about time they came back, just needs something to kick start it again.</p><p><br /></p><p>The only way to ensure getting natural pearls is to buy them with a GIA, BGI or AGL cert, or from a high end auction house which has had them certified.&nbsp; This will cost 1000&#039;s of course.</p><p><br /></p><p>Looks like you have a good quality vintage set which will last your lifetime (they are not going to be bead center pearls), so unless you paid 1000&#039;s I don&#039;t think you need to worry.&nbsp; If you are in London one day and Sotheby&#039;s/Bonham&#039;s are having an open valuation day for jewellery then pop in, there is always the chance you have got very lucky and have a natural set.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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