Reply With QuoteNo expert but I think yellow is rarer and more valuable isn’t it?
Evening! Homework help time again, I think!
Does anyone have any experience with amber? What's this worth? Is it a curio, or am I sitting on a fortune? (I know, I know, it's a curio.)
It's a big piece of amber - a single piece, I think, crudely set with silver. It's big, at 95 grammes, and is about 10cm long. Anyone?
It might be Russian.
If we identify this, I've got a second, different piece that might be even harder!
No expert but I think yellow is rarer and more valuable isn’t it?
I think it's worth more if it has a mosquito trapped inside.
Sadly, if there's a mosquito, you roll the dice and see what comes out. Might be a T-Rex, might be a Cambrian slug. :( The perils of a tech start-up.
This thread has unexpectedly led me to learn that mosquitoes only bite terrestrial vertebrates, so if the slug is what you were hoping for you are likely to be disappointed.Originally Posted by Qatar-wol
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Ooh, I didn't know that. Not dugongs, not seals, or equivalent? (Skin/blubber too thick I suppose.)
Scratch that, my research was carried out with too much haste. Apparently they do bite some fish and some invertebrates, primarily other arthropods. No mention of molluscs though.
Last edited by Mr Curta; 29th March 2023 at 21:11.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
No help whatsoever but was Qatar as fun as the ruler makes out?
Not my area of expertise, but adjacent.
First, it's worth discovering if it is actually amber - now, it almost certainly is, because when amber is faked it is usually faked to resemble valuable, clear, uniform amber - frequently (since 'Jurassic Park' - seriously!) with insect inclusions. The easiest test is a red hot needle inserted where the sun don't shine (in the amber) - i.e. where the mark won't be visible: sniff the smoke - if it smells like plastic: bin it. If it smells resinous/very slightly coniferous, the news is good. Gambling on pics alone, I'd say it looks mostly real.
There's LOTS of amber deposits worldwide - it even shows-up in the UK in a few spots, but the most prolific sources are Baltic, Myanmar and Mexico, followed by Dominican and Ukraine.
Baltic started-out being commonest - it could be picked-up on the Baltic seashore in a fair number of locations, eroding from low cliffs or below wave level. Being slightly buoyant, it could float from there to distant shores - even the UK.
For a long time Myanmar, Mexico and Dominican vastly overtook it - it was mined, and of high quality; but then Russia started to dig up vast areas of Kaliningrad, and now Baltic is #1 again.
Where you bought it might be a clue - if it's quite old and sourced in Europe, Baltic is likeliest; Asian hols: Myanmar; Americas: Mexican or Dominican. But really, there's a host of possibilities.
My guess is it's likeliest to be Baltic and quite recently dug. The murky yellow stuff didn't used to command the same value as clear and golden, but fashions change, so who knows (not me). Yours has been mounted to appear to include clear-ish parts. It could be natural - they are murky - but it rings alarm bells. You don't see that admixture often at-all, and when you do it's not very clearly delineated, so my suspicion is it's a chimaera. The clear parts may even be plastic bonded to real, low-grade amber and then mounted to hide the joins. All depends how busy you want to get with hot needles...
Even if it's real, it's not a high-grade piece, it lacks structural uniformity - the mount hides open pockets and irregularities that hurt desirability among collectors. (Or used-to, I'm out of date in every possible sense...)
If it's Baltic, it's somewhere between 38 and 55 million years old: Eocene epoch, a time not too long after the non-avian dinosaurs became extinct, but well before the human lineage fell out of the trees.
The resin comes from an ancient, almost entirely extinct group of conifers called 'umbrella pines', of which just one species clings-on in Japan.
The only real technical expert in the UK is a chap called Andy Ross who last I heard was at the National Museum of Scotland; if you're ever in Embruh, look him up and he should be able to pin it all down for you.
Not a clue as to value. Look for something similar on ebay. Doubt it'll need insuring separately. Sorry.
Beware of reconstituted / reconstructed amber 'put together' in Russia. Made using small pieces, fused/ pressed together. Similarly, beware of doctored amber with 'inserted fauna' (tiny insects) of recent origin – as distinct from the real stuff where the liquid amber sap engulfed the creatures up to hundreds of millions of years ago. There is a lot of reconstituted amber on sale; requires expert examination to differentiate between reconstituted / reconstructed, and genuine amber.
https://gem-a.com/gem-hub/gem-knowle...tructed-pieces
Last edited by sundial; 31st March 2023 at 02:20.
"Well they would say that ... wouldn't they!"
easiest way would be to take it to an auction house for a valuation , tbh unless its by a well know high end designer (would be stamped) it probably has little value (unless sentimental ) - you can easily buy similar sized baltic amber pendants for very little money.
as someone said above, its more likely to be faux amber fused to the real smaller pieces and the silver hides any flaws
Last edited by pugster; 31st March 2023 at 06:40.
The opaque yellow is called honey amber, and it has become a lot more desirable.
Difficult to value such a piece though - my guess would be around the £2-300 mark, but could be a bit more to the right buyer.
So clever my foot fell off.
This is a fantastic example of why I turn to TZ-UK for answers, however obscure.
Thank you all for your help, and especially to you, Paul - I appreciate it!
I really don't think there's a single subject that this forum is unable to answer questions on!
I agree with that. It's a great place for sure.
Indeed, usually every day here is a schoolday!
F.T.F.A.
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