Cultured fresh water pearls – free to someone...

About 12 years ago I bought a string of 45 cultured pearls on a whim. Every now and again I get them out to play with them, but I have no use for them.

They are American, not Chinese, and are roughly uniform in shape – approx 7.5mm x 4.5mm. The lustre is very very good. Their value is about £15-20.

For the price of postage (£3.90) you can have these pearls for free, on one condition – that you tell me what you're going to do with them and show everyone else by starting a thread on this forum.

Message me with your plans. I'll keep this ad open for a week and I'll then let the winning person know.

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What a lovely idea......thinking cap on!!

Good luck! Mind you, if you're the only one who enters, congratulations!

Can I just ask..they maybe came from America but what makes you think they originated (were farmed) n America?

Hello Pearlescence, good question and you're right to ask.

I know because I bought them in Tennessee. As you probably know (judging from the links in your signature!) round pearls are where the real money is, and these oval pearls don't fetch quite the sort of money round pearls do. In addition, the lustre and secondary colours play a large part of the value of pearls – these are not quite true 'gem' quality lustre (this is an official grading term, as I'm sure you're aware) but they are very good.

When mussels are farmed, they produce far more of these oval pearls than they do round ones. The farm that I bought them from were having a sale on these and I thought 'why not!', even though I'm not much of a pearl enthusiast. If I remember correctly, I paid around 50 cents each for these, but their value has at least doubled in that time, probably more.

Steve

To my knowledge there are no pearl farms in the USA. This is, almost certainly, a strand of Chinese freshwater elliptical pearls no matter what the seller said. Sellers pretend Chinese pearls are local pearls all around the world
There is no official grade of gem grade. only A AA and AAA.
The value hasn't doubled. Check my website for similar shape and colour of pearls (probably with better lustre and smoother surface)
Pearls seldom hold their value on the second hand market, unless they are naturals.
Sorry to squash your purchase

Hello, do you mind if I ask what your name is? It's a bit odd talking to someone's business name.

I did a quick Google search for you, just in case the farm I bought them from had closed down. But it's still there, maybe you're not aware of it?
http://www.tennesseeriverpearls.com/

And here are more links:
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attract...Tennessee.html
http://www.birdsongresort.com/pearlfarm/
http://www.karipearls.com/freshwater...tennessee.html
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/7646

I'm a gemstone collector. I have nothing to gain – and absolutely EVERYTHING to lose – by not being truthful.

I realise I'm new to this forum and have to build a bit of trust, and I'm very well aware of the surge in fake stones over the last 20-30 years, but you're welcome to come to my house and together we'll go to any jeweller you specify to get them tested.

Thanks, Steve

Okay, I've checked and I have to apologise. There is a single pearl farm there producing river pearls. There are so many scams out there (Just yesterday was told about pearl divers in Halong bay in vietnam).
They are an unusual and collectable pearl. Should be used in something very special

No problem and no offence. It's good to be cautious.

If you'd like to have a think about something to use them in you could own them yourself?

Steve

Ah, well if I had them I would add them to the pearl archive along with the other special examples to use in teaching and stuff. As pearls we have very many similar so that making something wouldn't be special..if that makes sense.
A pearl friend of mine in the USA just sent me this link to a great informational article. Thank you for posting these pearls and providing me with new pearls to know about.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/29/inside-tennesseeasdisappearingpearlindustry.html

Hi, just out of interest what happened to your pearls? I personal love pearls and would like to obtain some of them for myself, I'm going to look at the sites you mentioned above.

oooh did someone say pearls????

thinking too.

:)

Sonia

This is a very old thread and the OP never did report back.

Thats a shame, I had a look at the site in America and they really do have river pearls, the only one in the US.

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Originally Posted by pearlescence

This is a very old thread and the OP never did report back.

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