Pearls are one of the oldest known gems and, for many generations, have also been considered the most valuable. There are many different types of pearls and factors such as luster, surface quality, shape, color, size, and nacre (pearl coating) thickness are considered criteria for the price and value attributed to them. I primarily work with freshwater pearls and have developed a great interest, as well as experience, in how to choose and buy freshwater pearls for jewelry. In this post, I’d like to share some information and advice to help you evaluate freshwater pearls with an expert’s eye and buy pearls for your jewelry wisely.
Before analyzing all the important factors of a pearl, you should begin by identifying if it is a saltwater pearl or a freshwater pearl. Freshwater pearls come from mussels and oysters found in rivers, lakes, and ponds. They tend to be more irregular in shape and come in a vast diversity of colors as opposed to pearls found in saltwater oysters. Pearls that form attached to the inner surface of the oyster or mussel shell are known as blister pearls, while pearls that grow within the mollusk and were not attached to the shell are known as whole pearls. While saltwater pearls usually only produce one pearl per harvest, freshwater pearls can produce up to 30-50 pearls, which is a huge reason why freshwater pearls typically cost less than saltwater pearls when they are the same quality.
Secondly, you should know if the freshwater pearl is natural or cultured. A natural pearl is a pearl that has formed inside the mollusk of the mussel or oyster shell without any human intervention. These pearls are the rarest as well as the most valuable. Cultured pearls, on the other hand, grow inside the mollusk just as natural pearls do, but require some human aid in getting the process started. Pearl farmers insert a small bead or section of mantle, a membranous tissue that deposits a pearly substance called nacre and lines the inner shell surface of mollusks, into the shell of a mussel or oyster. The type of mantle tissue implanted can affect the shape, size, and color of the pearl. If a shell bead has been implanted along with the mantle tissue, the ensuing pearl is known as a bead-cultured or a bead-nucleated pearl. The majority of freshwater pearls today are produced in China, with some produced in Japan, Europe, and the United States. Almost all pearls today are cultured and most of them are non-bead cultured. However, the production of bead-cultured freshwater pearls is rising.
Freshwater pearls are generally valued according to factors such as luster, surface quality/smoothness, size and weight, shape, color, and nacre thickness. The higher the luster, or shine, of a pearl, the more valuable it is. Pearls with high luster exhibit strong light reflections and good contrast between the light and dark parts of the pearl, as opposed to pearls with low luster that seem milky and dull. When judging pearls for luster, it is recommended that you examine them on a white background and roll them around in order to see the entire surface area of the pearl.
Surface quality can be seen upon close inspection by looking for flaws in the pearl, such as blemishes. While it is normal for pearls to have flaws due to their natural growth, they vary in surface quality and those with fewer and smaller imperfections and blemishes are worth more.
The smoothness of a pearl is slightly different from surface quality. While a bumpy or wrinkled surface texture may diminish the value of a freshwater pearl, the bumps and wrinkles are not considered flaws. Nevertheless, the smoother a pearl, the more valuable it is.
When evaluating the size and weight of a freshwater pearl, it is important to remember that high luster and good surface quality are more important than finding the biggest and heaviest pearl on the strand. A smaller pearl with high luster, less flaws and blemishes, and good smoothness will be more valuable than a bigger pearl with dull luster, discolorations and pits, and a bumpy or wrinkled surface. Still, size and weight are indeed a price factor and most freshwater pearls are often priced by retailers according to weight (with grams being the most common unit of measurement) or by the strand.
The size of a round freshwater pearl may be expressed by listing its diameter (measured in mm), while the size of irregular pearls is expressed in two or three measurements, with one of them being the shortest that can be measured on the pearl.
When it comes to the shape of a pearl, usually the more round the pearl is the higher the value. However, if a pearl is not round but has a good symmetrical shape, it can be considered more valuable as well. Most freshwater pearls are baroque-shaped, which is the lowest priced shape if all the other price factors are equal. As a result of freshwater pearls’ abundance of nacre, there is a wide variety of baroque-shaped freshwater pearls and this variety makes for very interesting jewelry pieces. There are also many semi-round (or off-round) pearls that have entered the market in the last few decades and have been described to have potato, corn, and pea shapes.
Freshwater pearls come in a very wide variety of colors including white, pink, orange, yellow, lavender, and gray. Some pearls may even be more than one color. Pearl dealers have a very varied opinion on what color freshwater pearls should be priced higher. Some dealers place greater value on their white freshwater pearls, while others place a higher value on colors such as pink and lavender. Some dealers feel that freshwater pearl prices should be raised as the intensity of their color increases, while others price all of the colors the same. Ultimately, the best way to find out how dealers determine the price of their different colored freshwater pearls is to ask. However, there are certain aspects of the color criteria that most pearl dealers agree on: natural color pearls are more highly valued than those that have been dyed or irradiated and dark colors are most likely treated, the body color does not influence the price of the freshwater pearls as much as it does for the saltwater pearls, and opalescence and high luster are interrelated making freshwater pearls with high opalescence more valuable.
Although nacre thickness is not a major price factor or issue in freshwater pearls, it is worth being conscious of. Nacre is a pearly substance that mollusks secrete around irritants inside an oyster or mussel shell. If you were to cut a cultured pearl in half, you would see a large core inside. That core is a bead resulting from the insertion of a shell nucleus and the outside of that bead would be encircled with a layer of nacre. The thicker the nacre coating on a pearl, the better and more durable that pearl is. Because most freshwater pearls do not have a shell nucleus, nacre thickness is not usually a major price factor or issue. Even if a shell nucleus is present, the nacre on those freshwater pearls will generally be thicker than that of Akoya pearls and will be thick enough to be durable and lustrous.
Although freshwater pearls typically cost less than saltwater pearls, this does not indicate that freshwater pearls are low quality pearls not worth purchasing. Some low priced Chinese freshwater pearl strands can be found to have higher luster, more opalescence and a higher percentage of pearl nacre than the majority of the cultured saltwater pearls on the market these days. If you learn to observe the luster, color, surface quality, and uniqueness of freshwater pearls, you will find that they offer great variety, beauty and value for your jewelry.
Books recommended:
The Book of the Pearl: Its History, Art, Science and Industry (Dover Jewelry and Metalwork)
Pearl Buying Guide: How to Identify and Evaluate Pearls & Pearl Jewelry
