Enthusiastic new enthusiast here! I like the minerals as much or more than the jewelry. But I have a lot of old jewelry to try to identify. All thoughts welcome and thank you!
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Your piece is beautiful. Have it appraised?
Green jade.
Typical green for jade hand made necklaces.
Not heated.
If heated color would be lighter color green with no inclusions.
Use tester II Type to determine Gem type.
This looks more like Aventurine than Jade to me. Both Aventurine and Jade, Nephrite as well as Jadeite, come in various shades of green. This looks like it has something shimmery, which is more like Aventurine. There are darker surface pits that looks like it may have been dyed. The construction is most interesting. It looks like the beads are not drilled, rather they are grooved around the edges and the wire has been fitted into the grooves. The loops are wire wrapped so you have a nice artisan made piece, not a commercially produced one.
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I appreciate every reply! I am unaccustomed to being the one asking for advice, and I am quite grateful.
I’ll figure out how to post this part later (too new to the forums to know yet!) but I am happy to answer any Apple | Apple photo | photography related questions. Thank you all for being so welcoming.
If you have a lot of OLD jewelry, I would suggest 1. have it identified & appraised, 2. have it dated (as to what time period it’s from), and if needed have it insured. The reason being. Even old “Costume Jewelry” has value, some used both real & fake stones in them. Also set designers for movies are almost always on the lookout for Period Correct jewelry pieces (watches, rings, necklaces, etc.) to rent or buy.
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The dark spots and rough finish suggest qs
The dark spots and rough finish suggest quartz rather than jade. Normally precious jade would be fitted into silver or gold. The setting is not good quality as suggested by the non-welded rings in the necklace. It appears to be custom jewellery but made with polished quartz. The valuation of this piece is not worth the cost. In cases like this the actual workmanship and metal setting may in fact suggest its provenance and value. It is interesting now how the high price of gold has “released” some gemstones into the market from old settings because the gold value now exceeds that of the contained stones.
I agree, and Aventurine is a form of Quartz, often containing mica. Aventurine with visible crystallization like this is usually light and dyed darker green. Looking at the wire work again in larger magnification, I can see that not all of the loops are wire wrapped. Some are simple loops, and I noticed the jump ring that is misaligned. It’s impossible to tell from the photograph what the metal the wire is. It could be tarnished sterling silver, silver plated, nickel plated or some other base metal. Even sterling silver sometimes is worth more than the gemstones, such as Quartz, that are used to make a piece of jewelry.
You got your answer from others already but I also wanted to commend on how nice that piece is. It would be a shame to break it up, if that was the plan.
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It is simply not an antique piece and should be worn and enjoyed for what it is. The work of some person who carved grooves in the stones but did not or was not able to afford a classier necklace metal and rings: presumably because the stones did not warrant the expense.
Thank you for the thoughtful answer, Paul. I wasn’t going to tear it apart, but it’s too heavy for me to wear comfortably and I’ve been curious about this for years. The wide range of comments, from those about the aesthetic - I think it’s just pretty myself - to its age (I believe this belonged to my great aunt, and I’m not a spring chicken myself, so it’s fairly old) have been really interesting. And to oldtroll57, those are also thoughtful and appreciated comments and suggestions. Off topic - times two but - 1.- any recommendations on the first course I should purchase for myself here and 2. - what online markets have you had the best success with for old jewelry not with precious stones? Thank you all, again.