The Pearl Guide

Blemish: A defect found on the surface of the pearl. Non-damaging blemishes include spots, bumps, pits and wrinkles, and can affect a pearl’s price. Damaging blemishes — which may worsen, and can affect the durability of a pearl as well as its price — include cracks, holes and chips. Button: A dome-shaped pearl with a [...]

Black-Lip Oyster: An oyster of unusual size and diameter found in the South Pacific, from which is derived the famous black pearls known in the industry as Tahitian Pearls. Other colors produced by this mollusk, besides black, are silver to light gray, dark gray, orange, gold, green, blue, and purple. Gold-Lip Oyster: The large oyster [...]

Abalone Pearl: A naturally cultivated pearl from an abalone, which is a univalve mollusk. Akoya Cultured Pearls: Pearls produced by deliberate human intervention in several varieties of saltwater mollusks generally found in the waters around Japan and China. The Akoya pearl ranges in color from cream, white, rose, gold and blue-gray, and remains justly famous [...]