Victorian Pink Coral, an antique English strand from the late 1800s. All the gemstone Coral loved by the monied classes of Victorian England had its source in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Sicily, and virtually all of it was cut and polished in the south of Italy, into gemstone sets for pendants and brooches, and mostly for matched strands of beads, such as the above. A matched strand of this Victorian Pink Coral would have been cut by the same artesan, and would have been cut from the same branch of Coral, hence the perfect match of its colour.
Gemstone Coral from the Mediterranean can come in any of the range of colours associated with red, from palest pink through orange and orange-red to a deep blood red. The most rare of gemstone Coral hues is the blood red and in keeping with its rarity, it is also the most expensive. However, the Victorian English were not that keen on the deep red, especially in matched strings of beads, much preferring the more delicate of the range, the more orange and orange-red, and particularly, for necklaces, the deepish pinks.
The above strand is exactly the tone that the Victorian English sought in their gemstone Coral bead necklaces. Gradually these lovely strands are becoming more difficult to source in England, and this is very evident in their increasing costliness. Since Covid there has been a rise in the price asked in England, approaching 80%, for this type of Victoriana.