PAPERWORK FOUND AMONGST THE PEARLS

Number One Son visited and left, none the wiser that his mother had spent a small fortune on the off chance that she could create an income and believe me, I managed to walk past that hall cupboard as if it never existed.

Eventually I plucked up the courage, pulled out all the boxes and started sorting the pearls.  The colours were all very muted and had a depth that made me think of the double strand of pearls my mother used to wear 50 years ago when I was a young girl.  I found that I started stopping at every pearl jewllery counter to see if I could find similar pearls.  The only time I saw something similar was amongst antique or vintage jewellery dealers stock.

For weeks my sittingroom floor was covered in various piles of pearls, eventually I go to the last box which also had a couple of envelopes and some written notes that appeared to be stock records.  At last I knew and had confirmation that I had a huse stock of vintage pearls.  The envelopes contained two invoices from a Spanish company which explained the Spanish stock references written on each parcel of pearls.  The invoices were dated 1941 and 1940 and the invoices made reference to the fact that due to the war the shipment contained no silk in the way of ribbon or thread.  So although I cannot confirm that these pearls were part of the consignment mentioned in these invoices, at least it gave me an indication as to the era from which my pearls came.

During the war wool, cotton, linen, rayon, silk and nylon was commandeered by the government for military uniforms and supplies.


I still had no idea how I was to turn these strings of pearls into necklaces with a clasp....something you could actually wear!