Featured Sterling Necklace Maker

I've been on the fence about buying this necklace from a dealer in the same mall as me.

I was buying a ring from her case a couple weeks ago, and while I had the store clerk unlocking the case I asked to snap a couple photos of the necklace just to take home and mull over, so unfortunately these are the best pictures I have..

I tried looking up the name "ML Drew" but came up with nothing.

I'm not a huge jewelry wearer, I've already misplaced the ring I bought from her 2x this week alone , so while I wait til she runs another sale I wanted to do the proper research before I commit.

 

It is an Indian silver mango necklace. The figure 8 clasp is also used a lot in Indian ethnic jewellery.

Probably a former owner. It would have had a dangle with the manufacturer's mark on it, that is what the hole is for. With Indian ethnic jewellery a maker is rarely important.

 

Oh great! I'm glad you knew what it was! I kept thinking it looked like some form of leaves, but it wasn't quite right.
I wondered if it wasn't a former owners name, but I didn't know how old the piece was/if it would have been valuable enough to spend the money getting a name stamped on it.

 

Interestingly, we have another mango necklace with B.I. Drew right here on the forum:

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/i...-mark-high-silver-content.52864/#post-2617255

So not ML but BI. The plot thickens. Maybe relatives?
Anyway, as I said, the maker is not important in this case.

Forgot to add before, in India the mango stands for prosperity and happiness, so always a good symbol to have.
I also have a mango necklace btw. It looks very pretty on, a simple elegance.

 

I'm not much of a jewelry wearer, but I think that necklace is so cool!

I googled to see other examples, and I noticed that while some are sterling, there were quite a few that weren't. Did the shop owner tell you it was sterling?

 

If my memory serves me correctly, its marked sterling on the other side of the clasp.

 

Very interesting!

 

You guys! My memory did not serve me correctly

The antique mall is running a store wide sale in 2 days for the Christmas open house, which is when I was going to further check it out, but my SO went ahead and surprised me with it for our anniversary (which I am totally amazed he actually listened to me when I pointed it out to him ).

It's unfortunately not marked, but I did read India did not have silver marking standards til 2005, but there are other things that put me on the fence for and against..
Ie. Would so much (crude) "craftsmanship" (welding each piece to the chain, hand stamping the clasp) go into a cheap piece?
It also feels like sterling..

Still I'm a little sad/feel bad because it wasn't the cheapest necklace and knowing it's most likely not sterling I wouldn't have bought it because some cheap metal jewelry can cause my skin to insanely itch and turn rashy in places..
Maybe I can wear it over a turtle neck.

Im trying to research the history of India's sterling industry, but its difficult, a lot of Native American articles pop up.

I'd like to clean it, but don't want to cause discoloration if it's not true silver..
What do you guys think?