Ming’s Honolulu pearls

[ringo865]

My mom is going through a bunch of stuff of my aunts. She is 89 years old and her mother-in-law bought her a triple strand of pearls from Mings in Honolulu. It has a phoenix clasp. I understand that this puts the timeframe around 1970s. Ming’s Is now defunct. Wondering if anyone knows if these are a Akoya pearls or some thing else? They are very beautiful, and very heavy and, very cold.

 

[pearlsngems]

It's possible they are akoyas. The photo of the strand as a whole is too small for me to see much of the pearls' surface. I'd like to see close ups of any pearls with blemishes or of nacre worn away near drill holes.

• The mark on the clasp appears to read 14K, and gold clasps are not commonly used with imitation strands. That said, I own 2 high quality imitation strands that have 18K clasps, so it is not unheard of-- and gold was not so costly in the 1970s.

• There is no gimp (French wire) to protect the thread where it meets the clasp, and I would expect to see gimp on a good quality strand. But maybe they were restrung at some point and the stringer didn't use gimp.

Try this: rub two of the pearls together gently, or rub one pearl gently against the edge of your front tooth. (I use end pearls for this to avoid any risk of marring center pearls.) Does it feel smooth or a bit gritty? Real nacre feels gritty; imitation pearls feel smooth.

Do you have a 10x loupe? If so examine the pearls' surface. Real nacre looks very smooth at 10x magnification, while imitation pearl coating appears just a little coarser. If in doubt compare with known-real or known-fake pearls.

 

[winnietucker]

No help but I love seeing Ming’s here. They’re popular in HI and I’ve wanted a bangle for a bit, they’re just too spendy.