A brooch purchased at an antique shop is found to contain a rare pearl that is expected to entice buyers worldwide.

05/07/2003

BY BRYAN ROURKE
Journal Staff Writer

NEWPORT -- A $14 brooch purchased three years ago at a Bristol antiques shop has turned out to contain a priceless purple pearl, according to Alan Golash, a Newport antiques dealer.

Golash is somewhat vague about the details of his purchase, but his claims about the value of the rare pearl are corroborated by gem experts who examined it separately.

His partner found the brooch in a basket of costume jewelry at a former antiques shop in April 2000, but Golash said his partner doesn't want to be publicly identified. Golash also decined to identify the former shop or its owners.

"That's not fair to do to people," Golash said. "If they found out they sold something for $14 that was worth $1 million, it would kill them."

His partner recognized immediately that the brooch was made of gold, Golash said, and brought it home for him to inspect.

Golash, who restores antique jewelry, cleaned the brooch, and discovered it was made of 18-karat gold and enamel and included three small rose-cut diamonds. Based on its construction and Victorian styling, it is believed by jewelry experts to have been created between 1850 and 1875.

But most notably, the brooch features two pearls, both of which gem experts say are all natural, purple and produced from quahogs.

The larger pearl is the size of a marble.

Natural pearls that are purple in color are extremely rare and purple pearls of this size are rarer still, according to gem experts interviewed separately by The Journal.

"It keeps getting rarer and rarer and rarer," said Antoinette Matlins, of Woodstock, Vt., author of The Pearl Book: The Definitive Buying Guide, who examined the brooch last year. "If you put all the factors together -- its size, shape, color and eye effect, each adding increasing rarity -- it is an extremely rare creation."

It's so rare, it's one of a kind, according to Benjamin Zucker, president of the Precious Stones Co., in New York, author of Gems and Jewels and a jewelry adviser to the Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses.

"You cannot put a price on this pearl because there's nothing to compare it to," Zucker said in a phone interview last month. "It seems to me what Alan has found is exceedingly rare."

Golash said he plans to sell the brooch at auction in two years in Hong Kong, where pearls are most prized. Collectors congregate there each year to see what Sotheby's and Christie's have to offer.

Two years ago at a Hong Kong auction, a yellow conch pearl, which Zucker says is not as rare as a purple quahog pearl, sold for $488,000.

"We do auction a lot of items," said Betty Lin, vice president of jewelry at Christie's. "But we've never had a pearl like this before."

Christie's and Sotheby's, according to Golash, are "vying over" his pearl brooch now. Sotheby's did not return phone requests to comment on the matter.

Between now and when the brooch is auctioned, Golash said he's following Zucker's advice to promote the pearl brooch. Golash said he's making arrangements to exhibit the brooch around the country later this year as part of an American jewelry tour.

"We have to get the word out," Golash said. "If people don't know it exists and how rare it is, no one will show up to bid on it."

The purple pearl meets the colloquial, but not the scientific, definition of a pearl, according to Matlins. By definition, a pearl must come from a bivalve mollusk, she says, such as an oyster or a mussel, which usually produce white pearls. But, for the most part, the pearls those mollusks produce now aren't natural, but man-made, called cultured pearls.

A bead, which acts as an irritant, is placed inside an oyster or mussel, which protects itself by coating the bead with a lustrous nacre. Afterward, the bead is removed and sold as a gemstone.

This is how pearls have been produced since the early 20th century. That's when, Matlins said, worldwide oil production created water pollution that rendered natural pearls "virtually extinct."

The difference between natural and cultured pearls is apparent in an x-ray, where one will have a bead inside, the other consistent composition throughout.

Most shellfish, particularly those with a "pearly" lining in their shells, are capable of producing pearls, according to Matlins. Subtle differences in the types of shellfish will produce pearls of different colors.

White is normal for oysters and mussels, according to Matlins. Beige and orange are common for conch pearls. Purple is what's expected for quahogs, but then quahogs are not expected to produce pearls.

According to Golash's research, one in 10,000 conch will produce a pearl. And for quahogs, he says, there's even less likelihood. Matlins writes about all kinds of pearls in her book, but doesn't mention those from quahogs.

"It is an amazing pearl," she said.

Golash's pearl is also highly unusual because of its size. It's huge. It takes an oyster 10 years, she said, to produce a 6-millimeter-diameter pearl.

"An 8-millimeter pearl is considered very large," Matlins said. "A 10-millimeter pearl is considered very, very large."

Golash's pearl, which he says he jointly owns with his partner, is 14 millimeters.

Prospective buyers should get a good look at the brooch, according to Zucker, and Golash should get as much history about it as possible. A great part of a gem's value, Zucker said, is its past.

"Every great gem has a story, and preferably a curse," Zucker said. "It is an odd thing. Everyone and his brother-in-law was killed over the Hope Diamond."

One possible history for the pearl, Zucker speculates, is a connection with Native Americans. They used quahog shells and, when available, perhaps pearls from them as a kind of currency, called wampum, according to Zucker.

"There's no doubt it's a quahog pearl," Golash said. "Rhode Island is the quahog capital of the world, but who made the brooch, we don't know. We're still working on that."

Golash said a year ago he met with the owners of the shop where the pearl brooch was purchased, two elderly women who have since retired to Florida. He presented them with a picture of the pearl brooch.

Golash said he hoped to glean some history about the brooch from the women, but got none. "They didn't remember it," Golash said.

So far, Golash's only promotion of the pearl, which is of the species venus mercenaria, is naming it. He calls it the Pearl of Venus.

Yes, it certainly sounds grand, Golash admits, but then, he says, the name fits.

"It really does belong in a museum," he said.