Ellen
Super_Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2006
- Messages
- 24,433
Aw, that is sweet of you not to say. Of course, I wouldn''t either.Date: 9/5/2008 2:13:25 PM
Author: LittleGreyKitten
A lot of faux pearls were sold c.1900-1920s with very iffy, misleading sorts of descriptions (I''ve seen some of the actual antique ads and they really did flat out lie!), so tons of people bringing in ''grandma''s pearls'' get an unpleasant surprise- I see this a lot. Alexandrites also- synthetics have been around for forever, so people who think grandma has a huge gorgeous real alexandrite are also in for a surprise. (Actually my own grandmother has one- she believes implicitly that it''s the real thing, but it isn''t... not that I''ve ever said anything to her, it''s one of her favorite pieces of jewelery that she wears everyday and loves it, it would crush her to know it was synthetic.
Not so much the diamonds, people seem to generally know which pieces from their families are real or not. We do test diamond-test antique jewelry for people every so often, but I don''t really recall breaking anyone''s heart over a family ''diamond''. I suspect a lot of the good faux diamonds were sold as represented, but that the family might lose track of the provenance over the years (like you) or that the husband didn''t exactly fess up that it wasn''t real.
Advertising pracitices and rules have changed a LOT in favor of the consumer though!
I do think it''s 1920s or possibly early 1930s, it has that style.

And thank you for the info!
Mrs.2, thank you! It has been interesting, hasn''t it? And fun, even if it did turn out not to be a real diamond.

glitter, I was going to post my ring, I was just kind of waiting to make sure it was going to be ok with the moderators.
