I bought a necklace from an antique store. The owner said it belongs to an old lady who inherited it from her mom. I spent 1600$. But I start to wonder if it’s really worth it….
PS thank you jason for answering my question! I couldn’t find any stamps on it. Is that normal? The owner said it’s worth 7500$. I didn’t expect to be that much( he claimed that he was helping the lady to sell and the lowest she could do was 1600$ and he had a professional guy clean the necklace ) my daughter is 4 months old, at some point, I want to pass down this to her as a legacy but I couldn’t find stamp /hallmark and I used a magnet to test the material, and I can feel some gentle pull) after a few research, I started to think maybe it was a bad investment…… I didn’t know how to reply here, so I added my concerns on this original post!
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Welcome to Turquoise People! The necklace looks really nice and I do believe it has some age. The problem is it looks like at some point it was restrung and a new hook and eye and a few contemporary beads were added. Plus, they polished the necklace and the patina went with it. Yes, you necklace is worth the price paid.
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thank you jason for answering my question! I couldn’t find any stamps on it. Is that normal? The owner said it’s worth 7500$. I didn’t expect to be that much( he claimed that he was helping the lady to sell and the lowest she could do was 1600$ and he had a professional guy clean the necklace ) my daughter is 4 months old, at some point, I want to pass down this to her as a legacy but I couldn’t find stamp /hallmark and I used a magnet to test the material, and I can feel some gentle pull) after a few research, I started to think maybe it was a bad investment……
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If a dealer claimed it’s worth $7500 and sold it for $1600, you can be sure that was an exercise in “salesmanship.” This piece is exactly as @Jason describes it above.
Unmarked isn’t an issue. Enjoy the necklace.
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EXACTLY what I was thinking. And if the dealer really knew enough to believe he had a $7,500 squash, I would think he would know enough to not polish away the patina.
It is a lovely squash blossom, and I agree, enjoy it.
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I don’t know any thing about it. I bought ut because we have a very dear mutual friend we both trust…. but I do like old looking and this one looked so much newer than I expected…. That was another reason I doubted its value 
thank you so much I feel so much better now!
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It’s a gorgeous piece! You can feel good about buying it. And time will eventually restore the patina 
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I agree. And when I want something to darken up quickly, I hang it on my antique coat rack in the bedroom and let it age in my South Carolina humidity. It’ll patina up real quick. Lol.
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Good idea! As it’s less humid here (most of the time), I just put my to-be-patina’ed pieces in the bathroom 
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Liver of Sulphur if often used to give a natural looking patina to silver and copper.
Some friends of mine use it often.
It does smell really bad and must be handled carefully.
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Welcome to the forum @Yamei. You’ll find a great deal of knowledge here.
Congratulations on your purchase. I really like your box bow squash. When you wear it, I’m sure you’ll receive a lot of compliments.
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I’m too much a scaredy-cat to use Liver of Sulphur, but I know it’s very effective!
I once used a hard-boiled egg with success. It created a satisfyingly dark patina. Then I just burnished the high spots a little with a jeweller’s cloth.
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I have a buckle that got over polished when I had a stone fixed. My bathroom is really humid, so I need to try leaving it in there.
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Also too scared to use it. Plus my lungs can’t handle it. South Carolina humidity usually does the trick, but a Silversmith friend suggested leaving a couple pieces that I wanted darkened up in my bathroom.
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@Islandmomma , this is the blackening you want. I think it is the same as the old Hil-Ox formula: HCl and tellurium dioxide. I have powdered sulfur if you want a pinch of it. You could place in a covered dish. I’ve never tried it but it might work but the whole piece would turn dark. It does not really have any odor. They say placing with a hard boiled egg also works.
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This is such a cool forum. I’m so glad I found it!
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We are glad you found us 
Welcome to Turquoise People!
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I used to search info on YouTube or random articles online but they were not interactive so it’s not very easy to learn anything useful! But this one is just so great!
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Thanks for the info but I tend to do better with natural things. I think I’ll stick with the egg. 
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@Islandmomma , put together when the egg is still warm and don’t forget to remove the shell.
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