Our Pearls

White & Gold South Sea pearls

The finest White South Sea cultured pearls, Pinctada maxima, come from the tranquil waters of Australia, and the elusive Golden South Seas, the rarest of all, are farmed mainly in the Philippines and Indonesia. As pearls have many differing value factors such as colour, shape, luster, size, and surface quality combined together to produce a unique gem, grading pearls is difficult. Although it is possible to grade each value factor individually, most purveyors of this gem rely on a simple letter-grade system. The grading assigned will rarely be absolute, varying from one dealer to the next, but the grades should give the consumer a practical basis from which to judge the quality of the pearls.

South Sea pearls are generally much larger than other pearl types and have a unique luster quality. These factors make South Seas both distinctive and valuable. All things being equal, South Sea pearls have a higher value and command higher prices than all other types of pearls. As with other saltwater mollusks, the Pinctada Maxima is bead-nucleated. However, the growth period is approximately 3-6 years, unlike the Akoya pearls, which develop in less than half that time and sometime as little as 8 months. Being a delicate organism, this genus of oyster is particularly susceptible to disease and stress, which is one reason why the culturing area for South Seas pearls is quite limited.

South Sea pearls can be found in the range of 8mm to 20mm, with the average being 13mm. Although extremely rare, some have been found between 20mm and 30mm. Only 10-30% of each harvest will be round or near-round, so those strands are truly a rare commodity. Silver-lipped oysters generally produce pearls in the white, silver, aqua and blue family of overtones. The gold-lipped oyster develops the cream, champagne, vanilla, and deeper golden variety. Since the natural colours of South Sea pearls are so rich and beautiful, after harvesting they are merely washed and buffed to remove any residue and bring out their natural glow.

The majority of white South Sea peals are cultured along the northwest coast of Australia. Although the majority of Pinctada maxima in Australia are collected in the wild and then introduced with hatchery-bred oysters to supplement the breeding program, in other areas the opposite is true. In both cases, wild oysters are mixed with the hatchery stock to keep the supply healthy and plentiful, and all sources are closely monitored by government organisations to guarantee their well-being.

The larger size of the South Sea pearls, the limited culturing area, and extended growth period all combine to make the South Sea pearl the rarest of all pearl types. The luster of South Seas pearls, whether white or golden, is deep and velvety, rich and luxurious. Only a small percentage of South Sea pearls are spherical and as such, full strands of matched pearls are rare. Golden South Sea cultured pearl necklaces are considered by many to be the most rare and most valuable pearls in the world. Unlike any other type of pearl in the world, baroque South Sea cultured pearls have their own allure and exotic beauty.

Black South Sea (Tahitian) pearls

Black South Sea cultured pearls, better are native to the French Polynesian area. Exotic South Sea pearls from the Black-Lipped Oyster, or Pinctada margaritifera, are more commonly known as Tahitian pearls. These pearls are often referred to as black, but have a remarkable colour range that covers the spectrum - from light, creamy white and grey, to regal greens and deep black. Tahitian pearls are relative newcomers to the pearl world. Unlike the more common pearl types, Tahitian pearls typically have a naturally dark body colour. These pearls have become some of the most sought-after, expensive pearls in the world. Because of their vast colour range, matching these pearls into a finished strand is an enormous task requiring thousands of loose pearls to create a single strand.

Tahitian pearls are considered to be the second most valuable commercially farmed pearls in the world. These pearls are produced by the large Black-Lipped Oyster which is the only mollusk to produce naturally black pearls. Unlike black freshwater and black Akoya pearls, which have been irradiated or dyed, Tahitians come by their dark colour naturally. Tahitian pearls are bead-nucleated, but unlike Akoya pearls the nacre is typically very thick. The thinnest nacre allowed by French Polynesian law for export is .8mm.

Tahitian pearls are the only pearls that have a full colour spectrum. Black Lipped oysters have a rainbow-like mantle which exhibits many natural colours. Several factors influence the colour variation among Tahitian pearls as no two Pinctada margaritifera individuals are exactly alike. The quality and colour of the nacreous layers of the black lipped shells differ as does the implanted mantle tissue which forms the pearl sac and then secretes the nacre that makes the pearl.

Tahitian pearls are bead nucleated hence why so many of them are round, or near round, with other shapes such as drops, baroques, and circled also commonly found in the harvest. These pearls have an average size of 9-14mm, but some rare gems larger than 20mm have been found. Tahitian pearls are farmed in French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, the Micronesian Islands, and even to some extent, Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines. Although Tahitian pearls carry the name of the famous Tahiti Island they do not come from Tahiti, Tahiti is the main trading post for islands that produce Tahitian pearls.

Akoya pearls

Akoya pearls, produced by small Japanese oysters, Pinctada imbricate = martensi, fucata, are implanted with spherical beads carved out of natural shell, resulting in pearls that are characteristically rounder than traditional freshwater pearls. Akoya pearls have both a higher perceived and actual value than the Chinese Freshwater pearl. Akoya pearls are valued many times more than freshwater pearls of comparable quality. The Akoya oyster is the smallest commercially farmed, pearl-producing oyster. Because of this, the pearls do tend to be small. An average Akoya pearl is only 7mm, while an average South Sea pearl is in the 12mm range. Akoya pearls are inherently round, although every harvest produces a percentage of baroque and keshi pearls. These pearls tend to have the bright luster and shine common to the Akoya, but a shape and look reminiscent of a freshwater.

Akoya pearls, unless colour-treated, have soft, neutral colours and overtones. Most pearls are white to grey, with pink, green, or silver overtones. Akoya pearls are never naturally black - these pearls have undergone either a radiation treatment or dyeing. While the Akoya pearl is undoubtedly a more rare and valuable pearl than its freshwater pearl cousin, it is only the third most valuable commercially produced pearl, falling behind South Sea and Tahitians. Akoya pearls however can be extremely valuable. Japan was once the undisputed Akoya pearl producing center of the world, but has recently lost that title to China, where in the last 5 years pearls of equivalent quality have been produced in a much greater abundance. The vast majority of the world's Akoya pearls, 8mm and larger, are still produced in Japan. However, the Japanese now import many of their smaller Akoya pearls from neighboring China. These pearls are then worked into finished and semi-finished goods and sold as Japanese Akoya pearls.

Freshwater Pearls

Freshwater pearls are produced by Hyriopsis cumingi (triangle shell) and Hyriopsis schlegeli (Biwa shell) commercially in China, and other bivalve mollusks that live in lakes, riverbeds, and creek bottoms in Japan (Biwa pearls and Lake Kasumigaura pearls), as well the United States (Mississippi River Basin). In addition to the traditional white body colour, these pearls come in a rainbow of natural colours as brilliant as lavender, tangerine, mauve, aqua-silver, peach, and every shade in between. Their unique shapes range from very baroque to nearly round and are nearly indistinguishable from Akoya in their shape.

The varied shapes include potato-shaped and stick pearls, rice-shaped and button pearls, coin-shaped and drop pearls, off-round and round pearls. A perfectly round freshwater pearl is extremely rare. Their sizes range from tiny seed pearls measuring 1 or 2mm in diameter to 15mm and larger. Over the last decade or so, Chinese pearl farmers have greatly improved processes for growing cultured freshwater pearls that are made up completely of nacre. They have also developed ways to reshape pearls by repositioning them during the growth process to result in more perfectly rounded ones. At these farms, each mussel is surgically implanted with 24 to 32 tiny pieces of mantle tissue, on either side of the shell, a process known as nucleation (noo-klee-AY-shun). Once they have been nucleated, the mussels protect their flesh from the irritants by secreting nacre.

Freshwater pearls are nucleated in a different fashion to their counterparts. In lieu of the mother-of-pearl bead the pearl farmers nucleate their mussels with only a piece of mantle tissue. This mantle tissue is not placed in the reproductive organ of the mussel, but in the fleshy mantle tissue. In comparison to their saltwater counterparts produced by Akoya oysters can only nurture 1 or 2 pearls at a time. While freshwater pearls are typically tissue-nucleated, meaning they are composed entirely of nacre; the fragment of mantle tissue disintegrates as the mollusk coats the tissue, resulting in a pearl made of solid nacre.

Keshi Pearls

Keshi pearls are formed when the oyster rejects and spits out the implanted nucleus before the culturing process is complete, or the implanted mantle tissue fractures and forms separate pearl sacs without nuclei. These pearl sacs eventually produce pearls without a nucleus.

Keshi pearls may form in either saltwater or freshwater mollusks. They are generally small in size and, because there was no nucleus to guide the ultimate shaping of the pearl, their shapes vary widely. Keshi come in a wide variety of colours, and tend to have high luster and even rare orient. This is due to their solid-nacre composition. Because the implanted nucleus of the pearl has been expelled by the mollusk, resulting in a keshi pearl that is 100% nacre. This gives it an especially lustrous and shimmering surface quality. Most keshi, in fact, have a greater luster than even the best-quality cultured pearls. The fact that keshi pearls are solid nacre does not, however, give them the classification of natural pearls. This is because keshi are a bi-product of the culturing process, not a natural occurrence.

Keshi pearls, especially Tahitian and South Sea, were once quite the bargain yet beautiful and unique pieces. Today Keshi pearls are much rarer. This is because Tahitian and South Sea pearl farmers are now x-raying oysters to determine whether or not the nucleus has been expelled. When a nucleus-free oyster is found they are then re nucleated before a keshi has time to form. This practice has made keshi pearls much more of a rare find than they once used to be. The word keshi means "poppy seed" in Japanese, and these pearls are often also referred to as "poppy seed pearls."