Pearls: the queen of Gems

Since 1961, the American Pearl Company has specialized in natural pearls and imported cultured pearls from around the world. In the late 1960s, they opened an experimental pearl farming operation. After several million dollars and 25 years of research, in 1985 they harvested the first large commercial and marketable crop of American cultured pearls. By 1990, they were producing marketable American cultured pearls not only for the domestic market but 50 percent were exported to Asian and European companies. Today they are recognized as natural pearl specialists and the originator of the American cultured pearl. Their natural pearl varieties include the Abalone pearl, Conch ‘pearl,’ Melo Melo ‘pearl,’ Scallop ‘pearl’ and their own domestic American natural pearls.

Natural pearls

Abalone Pearls are natural pearls from the gastropod mollusk Haliotis, found along the coast of California and Mexico. These natural pearls occur in all the colors of the rainbow, though the most common are blue and green. They also occur in combinations of red, pink, purple, magenta, silver and cream. Abalone is the only mollusk that can be used commercially one hundred percent: its shell for inlay, buttons and carvings; its meat for food; its guts for fishing bait; and most importantly, its rare natural pearls.

Conch pearls contain no nacre, so technically they are not actually pearls at all. Instead, the gems are calcareous concretions. They are usually small in size and baroque or oval in shape. Colors are generally pink, yellow, brown, white or golden. Pink (or a salmon-like orange-pink) is the most sought-after color. The conch pearl has another important surface feature called a flame structure, which is a unique mottled-color pattern.

Melo Melo pearls are extremely rare and come not from an oyster or mollusk but instead from the Melo Melo marine snail, which is found in the waters of the South Chine Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Like conch pearls, the Melo Melo gem is not actually a pearl because it contains no nacre. They can be extremely large and are generally very round. The colors range from tan to dark brown. Orange is the most desirable color.

Scallop pearls are harvested from the Lion’s Paw, or Nodepeclen subnososus (Mando-de-leon), off the coast of Baja California. Typically symmetrical in button and oval shapes, these unique ‘pearls’ exhibit mosaic patterns with a three-dimensional effect and are maroon/plum-colored.

American Natural Pearls are available in a variety of unique shapes, i.e. button, teardrop, turtleback, wing, feather, rosebud and snail. Typically harvested from the Mississippi River and its tributaries, the pearls are white with overtones of blue, green, or or rainbow in baroque shapes. The finest specimens are very symmetrical in either white or fancicolors.

Cultured pearls

Saltwater pearls

Acoyas are considered the classic cultured pearl. They are grown in Japan and China and range in size from 2mm to 10mm. They are usually pinkish-white or cream and spherical in shape.

Tahitian Cultured Pearls are raised in warm waters and grow in the black-lipped oyster. They range in size from 8mm to 14mm and are usually shaded of silver-gray, green, peacock or black.

South Sea Cultured pearls are the largest and most rare cultured pearls. They range in size from 9mm to 18mm and are white, cream, silver-pink and gold.

Mabe cultured pearls are an assembled cultured pearl made from a hollowed-out cultured blister pearl that is grown against the inside of the oyster’s shell rather than within the tissue. They develop in a hemispherical shape with a flat back.

Freshwater pearls

Biwa cultured pearls have an irregular shape and come from Japan’s Lake Biwa.

Kasumiga is a new type of pearl from a lake in Tokyo. The mussels are implanted with round or flat seeds and the resulting pearl glows in rosy hues of pink.

Keshi pearls are formed in saltwater or freshwater and are the result of an oyster spitting out the implanted nucleus before the culturing process is completed. Keshi pearls are partially formed pearls that develop without nucleus and are therefore all nacre and usually small in size with many different shapes and colors. Keshi is the Japanese word for ‘poppy seed.’

Chinese Freshwater pearls are grown in an amazing variety of delicate shapes ranging from round and oval to button drop and baroque. Their colors vary from pure white to orange and rosy violet.

For more information, contact The Collector at (760) 728-9121.

Next week: Part three: pearl quality and value