The very first thing Marlene ever learned about pearls is that the truth about them is not in a maker's mark stamped into metal, it is in the pearl itself. Tonight, in this channel's first video built entirely around pearls, she walks through six specific, checkable clues that separate a genuine cultured pearl strand from a costume copy: the tooth test, the weight test, the hand knotted silk thread between each pearl, a drill hole examination under magnification, the name actually stamped on the clasp (including the honestly-labeled faux pearl maker Majorica and the genuine Mikimoto hallmark), and luster and orient, the way light moves through a real pearl versus the flat shine of glass.

Every dollar figure tonight traces to a real, checkable auction result, from a modest, honest genuine strand to a documented Mikimoto necklace that sold for more than five times its own presale estimate, so you can see where a strand like yours might actually land

Marlene has spent decades appraising estate jewelry, and every dollar figure in this video traces back to a real, checkable source, never a guess and never a rounded up number.

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