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Japanese Akoya (saltwater)
cultured and natural pearls are similar in that both have a nacreous coating
formed around an irritant. In the case of a cultured pearl the irritant
is typically a mother of pearl bead only slightly smaller than the cultured
pearl.
Freshwater cultured pearls
are tissue-nucleated and subsequently are not as spherical as the Akoya
cultured pearls.
There are six criterion
that are used in grading pearls:
Luster
A high luster pearl will show
strong and sharp light reflections. A low luster pearl will look
milky or chalky and resemble a mother of pearl bead. Luster is graded
on a scale of very high to very low.
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Color
Fresh water pearls appear in
a variety of colors. This is one of their many attraction. Salt water
pearls typically appear in the colors pink, cream, white, yellow, gold,
gray, blue and black. Pearls can also have an overtone color.
The overtone is often rose, green, blue, or silver. Color is purely
subjective. In the United States most people prefer a white or pink
color.
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Shape
Fresh water pearls appear in
a variety of shapes. Salt water pearls are valued higher the closer
the pearl approaches in shape a perfectly round sphere. Terms typically
used to describe shape are; round, out of round, slightly baroque and baroque.
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Size
There is a direct relationship
between size and price. The larger the pearl, of the same quality,
the greater the value. The most popular size of salt water pearl
in the U.S. is 6mm-7mm, followed closely by the 5mm-6mm, and the 7mm.-8mm.
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Blemishes
Blemishes are the surface imperfections
found on pearls. Like most things created by nature they are rarely
perfect. Blemishes can appear as pits, ridges, dimples, dull spots
or areas of different color. The fewer blemishes the greater the
value.
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Matching
Matching refers to the degree
the pearls blend with each other. Pearls in a necklace should be
similar in appearance to one another in terms of size, color, shape, luster
and blemishes. The degree to which the pearls match is graded on
a scale from excellent to poor.
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Japanese
Akoya (saltwater) mollusk produce one or two pearls in two to three years.
Freshwater mollusk produce
up to 60 pearls a year.
China produced about 800
tons of freshwater pearl in 1998.
All other pearl production(Akoya,
Tahitian,and South Sea) amounted to approximately 100 tons. |
