baroque pearls

[sera72]

Hi folks,

I would like to know is there a limit on how long a baroque pearl can be?

I got this grey semi baroque drop shaped possibly south sea with obvious orient for evaluation by a client. approx. lengnth 48 mm x width 17 mm

Is this normal ? I have never seen such a big baroque nor have I read anywhere. Just would like to know if anyone has seen this size before.

If its cultured how big would the oyster have been to produce such large baroques?

Cheers!

sera

 

[pattye]

Sera,

Hello and welcome! Any chance we could see a photo of this amazing pearl?

 

[KAC]

yes a pic would really help 48mm is very big!

 

[jshepherd]

That sounds like a very big pearl. Attached is a picture of baroque, white South Sea pearls. The diameter of the lot is 17 to 20 mm. You can see some that are quite long, like the one in the upper right. It would be close to the pearl you are describing.

 

[Hanaleimom]

Hi folks,

I got this grey semi baroque drop shaped possibly south sea with obvious orient for evaluation by a client. approx. lengnth 48 mm x width 17 mm

Whoa!!! That's approx. 2 inches in length. Please show us your picture!

 

[sera72]

The baroque pearls I was referring to as under... not a good photographer had to resize the image... but hope you get the idea on the size... its like a huge potato!

 

[pattye]

Sera,

These baroques don't have the right proportions for 17mm x 48mm. A pearl that size would be almost 3 times as tall as it is wide. Are those your measurements, or what you were told? Perhaps they are considerably wider than 17mm if the length (48mm) is accurate.

They look very interesting! Are they flattened when you look at them, rather than round; is that why the 17mm would be thickness? If they are flattened, they might be some type of coin pearl.

What kind of evaluations do you do?

 

[Caitlin]

Is that 2 different pearls or a front and a back?

 

[pattye]

Just to illustrate my question about the size of pearl/pearls, this is what 48 x 17mm (approximately) looks like.



Now I've switched out the photo so this is more accurate.

Is it possible, Sera, the proportions got skewed when the photo was resized?

 

[sera72]

Hi,

They are 2 diff. baroque pearls.

I was asked to give opinion on quality, but I found it very interesting coz. never seen such large ones before or while I was studying for pearl at GIA didnt see them mentioning such large baroques.

Maybe you are right Pattye, I didnt get the measurements quite like you mentioned. I basically took a quick measurements of the length and width.

the pearls in question displayed orient and drill hole was covered. Its going to be set in earrings I guess. It had great lusture with very minimal surface blemishes. Quite an extraordinary pearl I must say.

oh well all too new for me coz. I just finished my pearl course and getting to know the real stuff now....

Thanks alot and will be visiting this website alot to learn along the way

 

[sera72]

Pattye, the pearls are not flattened... it is rounded (imagine an oval rounded potato!)

 

[pattye]

Sera,

If the pearls are 17mm across, then is the photo of the 2 different pearls are very close to life size? They measure approx 17mm across. Extrapolating from that, they would be about 6mm taller than wide, which would be 23mm.

On the other hand, if they are 48mm tall, the width is likely in the neighborhood of over 24mm wide, if the proportions in the photo are correct.

Yes, they could be SS Baroque, but also irradiated /dyed freshwater are often gray.

The current GIA pearl course doesn't cover much about freshwater pearls, and a significantly revised version hopefully is coming out this year.

I learn something here every day!