Coral Graduated Strand English Antique. 1880s to 1890s. A particularly nice strand, lovely strong orange gemstone colour and well matched. Bead size graduated from 6.5mm centre, to 3.5mm at the 9ct Gold clasp.
Coral is an organic gemstone, not crystalline. Not all Coral is gemstone Coral; gemstone Coral is particular: it is of a more dense internal structure than “garden variety” coral, making it suitable for cutting, for carving, and for taking a high polish; and it is always in a colour range from quite light pink to blood-red. There are few, and there have always been few, sources for true gemstone Coral. One major source of this gemstone is the Mediterranean Sea, the origin of the Coral in the above strand; the Mediterranean source supplied the Victorian demand for this treasured gemstone.

The lovely saturated orange-to-pink colour of the above Coral Graduated strand was probably the most favoured Coral gemstone colour of all in the late English Victorian period, when every lady of means owned at least one Coral necklace. Gemstone Coral of deep red, or strongish red, though in fact the most rare of gemstone Coral colours, was not at all particularly popular in the England of that period.