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I am not in New York City and am rather a bit more southern than that. As for “best of the best” that depends on how well the question fits my queer expertise. My main cognition is in jewelry work, whether making a piece from scratch or repairing outstanding grandmother’s hand-me-down. Pearls I do recognise something regarding but am not the best of the best in that category! REAL PEARLS, NATURAL AND CULTURED First, the term “pearl” is not but will have to be applied only to natural pearls, formed in a mollusk when galore event in nature induces the oyster or mussel to form a pearl. These pearls are rather rare and are the pearls of antiquity before pearl farmers learned to culture pearls. Freshwater pearls fished from the rivers in the USA are natural pearls but nowadays, most freshwater pearls are likewise cultured in freshwater pearl farms. In any event, naturally forming or cultured, such pearls are formed in the oyster or mussel and are not fakes. The real divergence in the totally natural pearl and the cultured pearls is what makes the pearl start out to grow and the thickness of the nacre. Nacre is the pearly layers that make a pearl so lovely. The natural pearl will have very thick nacre, in general forming in concentric rings around a great deal of starting source or botheration to the mollusk. A big natural pearl is very, very rare. Cultured pearls in general use a “core” of mother-of-pearl, the shell of the mollusk. The bead core goes into the mollusk and nacre is formed around the core. The core determines the overall shape of the pearl. How long the oyster is permitted to let the pearl grow determines the thickness of the nacre. Thicker nacre is better. Best of all is thick nacre and a smooth, closely blemish free surface. Pearls grown inside the mussel or oyster do have a gritty feel to the tooth. FAKE PEARLS Fake pearls are made by coating a core of some sort (mother-of-pearl, plastic, etc.) with a plastic, a kind of paint containing ground fish scales or other stuff that look pearly to the eye. Generally, the fakes do NOT have a gritty feel to the tooth. Most may be identified with a little exercise and a 10x jewelers loupe or microscope. The way to do it is to compare real pearls with galore known fakes. The fakes closely always show a grittier “look” to the surface and not the more with no problems or difficulties formed natural nacre. The look is grittier but the feel to a tooth is smoother. After a great deal of exercise comparisons, most fakes are somewhat without apparent effort identified. Still, galore are hard to detect without very exhaustive testing at times using solvents and acids which attack the real pearl nacre but not the plastic fakes and visa versa. Other than that, a look at the drilled holes in the beads will help. Since the pearl is formed naturally without a hole, the hole ought to be drilled. The surface of the pearl at the drill hole will not “sink in” or “rise up” as is seen in numerous fakes that are formed and coated with the holes already made to the core. In the real pearl, the nacre will be smooth with the drill hole and might even be chipped a bit. Some folks commend having a dentist do an x-ray to see what is inside. Still, unless a person is very, very intimate with reading the images the results are very iffy. A core will look like a core whether in a phony or a cultured pearl. A core will not be present to any huge extent in a pearl formed freely in the ocean but those pearls just are not around or to be had except in very little sizes. Using a good loupe (hand kept magnifier) of 10 powers is likely the best home test. Of course, undertake the teeth first! Then look at the drill holes and the surface equated to a good cultured pearl. There is not a one-in-all test I may recommend. Some of this will plainly require some “pearls” of real and fakes for comparison. Even the jewelers are gulled once in a while but not often.Have you seen Mabe pearls? These are the huge “half pearls” oftentimes seen in rings and pendants. Some years ago a heap of genuinely good fakes hit the market and were being sold at very competitory prices’that is, equated to the real ones. Many were sold and purchased as the real thing! The testing for these required disassembly of the bogus mabes plus solvent and acid tests. A lot of buyers were taken in on this one, likely never to know they purchased and later sold bogus mabe pearls. |
st and highest-quality are round. Akoya, Tahitian, and South Sea oysters tend to manufacture the roundest pearls, while those of Freshwater mollusks may be oval to more or less off-round. When taking into account a pearl purchase, whether it be a necklace, bracelet, or earrings, look for consistency in the shapes of the pearls. Many of the less symmetrical shapes are used in stylish jewelry which may be rather beautiful: the drop pearl’s shape lends well to earrings, and the baroque pearl features irregular shapes that work well as necklace accents. In addition, a half sphere pearl called a “mabe” is many times employed in earrings, necklaces, and bracelets.
