worth keeping.
Not all pearls are equal, and the name on the strand tells you most of what you need to know. Here is how the three you will actually meet differ — and how to judge any of them.
Akoya, South Sea, freshwater.
Three names cover almost every pearl you will be offered. They differ in where they grow, how large they run, and how they catch the light.
Akoya
The classic round white pearl, grown mostly in Japan. Smaller — six to nine millimetres — and prized for a sharp, almost mirror-like lustre.
South Sea
The largest and rarest, from Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Nine to sixteen millimetres and beyond, white and silver through to a deep natural gold, with a satiny lustre.
Freshwater
The most abundant, grown in lakes and rivers. The widest range of shapes and colours at the gentlest prices, with a softer lustre.
Lustre, first.
Lustre — the deep glow that seems to rise from inside the pearl, not off its surface. Then surface, the fewer marks the better; shape, the rounder the rarer; size; and colour. Above all it is nacre, the layered substance the oyster lays down, that gives a pearl its life — and the thicker it is, the longer that life lasts.
A pearl is bought to be worn, and then handed on.
Blaise Huxley · On CraftNearly all pearls are cultured — and real.
Cultured pearls are grown on a farm but entirely real; natural wild pearls are rare and costly. Imitation pearls are glass or plastic — drawn gently across the edge of a tooth, a real pearl feels faintly gritty while a fake feels glassy-smooth. For anything of value, a laboratory will tell you for certain.
Pearls have a place in this house.
