Featured Amber Color Beads Necklace

I think they are modern plastic but it’d a nice chunky necklace.

 

Those clasps generally indicate something older to me; it might be worth testing for bakelite just in case. Real amber often doesn't weigh much, so if the're heavy the odds of plastic go up. I'd run them under a blacklight too, just to see what happens.

 

I think too heavy for real amber.

 

Did a test with baking soda. I think it’s negative and that’s just dirt.
The necklace weights about 8 ounces, I’d think too heavy for amber.
Is pressed amber havier than natural one?

I wonder what’s the deal with this necklace?
Description:
This is probably just plastic. Not Bakelite, Not amber, Not Faturan! Please buy it is a plastic beads if it will be Bakelite it will be good bonus for you!

Lot’s of bids, sold for $5100
https://www.ebay.com/itm/335-g-Bake...ae1e7dd:g:DkEAAOSwpZNcY~wH#vi__app-cvip-panel

 

Not sure myself. It wasn't sold as amber, but a few people obviously thought otherwise. Still not sure about the OP's beads. Some composites can be pretty hefty.

 

Glass? I have some chunky glass faux egg yolk amber beads that look very much like amber or amber bakelite but are 'genuine' glass.
Those hidden clasps are still used on many real and faux amber necklaces.

It boggles the mind, but..... it is faux cherry amber, which is expensive. It has a nice age, possibly 1940s. There is a possibility it is cherry bakelite, which is even more expensive, as is cherry faturan. With those swirls I am inclined to think polystyrene though.
Either amber bakelite or faturan turns dark cherry with age. I forgot which one, because it is something I stay away from. Just look at the price and you can see why.
Yours is a very nice necklace, and it should fetch a nice price, but it is not cherry and pretty recent, so not that kind of a price.

 

Not glass for sure. It gets charged when rubbed in cloth. That’s unreliable test for amber as I guess all plastics can get charged.
How do we tell the necklace is recent or not?

 

It is rather shiny.

I thought you had already ruled out amber? But if you haven't, what does it look like in UV light?

 

I did because of the heavy weight. Just mentioning because some people tell that’s one of the ways to test amber. Haven’t tried UV light yet.
How about the white rubbing around the holes? Does this tell us something? Will modern plastic/resin get this?

 

I don't know much about plastic/resin beads, the costume joolies probably know.
Some types of pressed amber can be pretty heavy. I have no idea why, maybe very compressed?

 

This is my from the amber necklace I posted some time ago. Clearly the beads show more age, different luster, more irregular, small chips etc but I there is similar white around the holes.
I would think regular plastic should not rubbed like that.

Could it be phenolic resin?

 

Looks legit from here. Old, but legit. Real amber gets that crackle when not stored properly.

 

I always start with look, weight and UV light, and take it from there. Look at them under UV light, that is all I can say for now.

 

I'm stunned to see how much that necklace went for.
On a similar topic, how do you identify faturan? I see prayer bead necklaces being sold all the time at the flea markets, with similar colors as the faturan necklaces I looked at online

 

I don't know exactly, but it has to look like it has some age. Faturan was made between ca 1910-1950. Anything that looks recent is fake.
It is simply a Turkish/Middle Eastern kind of faux amber, but there is a big faturan hype.
If I remember correctly it was developed by a Lebanese chemist, and first used for furniture knobs and handles. Later it was used for tesbih or komboloi (worry beads), as a cheap alternative to amber. It also ended up in necklaces.

 

Some of the beads I've seen look old. Or at least they have metal decorations at the end that look old. But they're rather lightweight, too. I was thinking about buying one today just in case, but the seller was asking 35 euros, which was too much for me to risk, not knowing how to identify it.

 

Did they look Turkish or Middle Eastern?

 

Yeah, they had some middle-eastern coins hanging from the end. I'm going to hold off spending too much (even though I'm now going to be obsessed with finding them) until I learn more (and 35 euros is way too much, when I rarely spend more than 5 euros per item). I bought two prayer beads today for 2 euros each, so I'll be posting them later to get all your opinions on them.

 

Re the clasp closure in the first set of photos... that style could be new, or old. In 2005 I visited the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Bought an amber necklace in their gift shop that has that type of clasp. It was brand-new at the time, of course.