Brackish water pearls (saltwater? or freshwater?)

[Aussie gemologist]

Roy can you tell us more about when and where they were purchased? Do you know the mollusk species from which they were harvested?

Personally, I would presume that they would be employing the use of black-lipped oysters, also it is quite obvious that they are seeded pearls due to the rarity of naturally occurring round pearls, also the NJ

There is no evidence that brakish water produces black pearls, as a single factor. Of the few producers who grow in or near brakish water, they claim it only provides a slight tint to otherwise light colored pearls.

Those appear to be dyed freshwater pearls.

The black string and charcoal color are the giveaway. Tahitian black pearls themselves are rarely jet black, but when they are... are very, very expensive.

I also suggest that due to the perfectly uniform and round shape of the pearls and the pristine luster that it is either a set of decent bead nucleated black lipped oysters pearls that may have been farmed in brackish water,
Most likely to save on operational costs,
Typical saltwater farming practices contribute a large part to the cost variance, typically in saltwater pearl culturing only one pearl per mollusk is seen, opposed to the possible dozens of pearls that are impregnated simultaneously within their freshwater counterparts, there is sometimes also seen to be faster shell growth associated with the shallow water farming.
Although it's not an impossibility to find natural saltwater pearls of a rounded shape, they would be exceedingly expensive, sourcing enough identically sized pearls of this quality to make a strand would require years of collecting to amass, this is the whole reason that natural pearls have historically been matched into graduated strands. Only since mikimoto developed modern seeding techniques has it become the norm to have identical strands that weren't cheap imitations.
If you had a strand of natural pearls this rare, it would be expected you would have proof of origin on hand, most likely in the form of an x-ray.
These are just a few of the reasons why I highly doubt that they are in fact natural.
I hope this clears up my reasons for disbelief.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Just want to point out that this thread is 12 years old. Roy, the original poster, was last on Pearl Guide on October 25, 2011.
His pearls are dyed freshwater pearl (see posts #8 and #15 by pearl experts Lagoon Island Pearls and jshepherd.)

 

[Aussie gemologist]

Caitlin there are a few around being dyed that really intense black. I have some cheap-as-chips wonky baroque strands that I ordered as black, and were dyed this obsidian black rather than peacock black for me. I do get asked for this color very occasionally - I also have a few large drop shaped FW and larger buttons - I will post pics tomorrow when i am back in the office.

There is also the option for these black colours to be achieved through the use of black beads and shorter than optimal growth times, this unfortunately leads to a weak/subdued pearlescence owing to the reduced number of nacreous layers around the nucleus.
They are generally less expensive than their more vibrant counterparts of similar size and overall comparable appearance.

 

[Aussie gemologist]

This is a brackish-water, natural heart shaped "blister type" pearl from a host Anomia Descripta Oyster found in the Parramatta River, Sydney, Australia - west of Kissing Point nearing the brackish/freshwater boundary.
The colours of species of true oysters ranges from a almost crystal clear white through yellow, pink, peach, orange, all the way to a deep raspberry red, a high level of translucency is seen in a portion of these shells, possibly as frequently as in 5-10% of beached material depending on the season, the other 90-95% are found to be semi-translucent to opaque, this example was cut from a shell that was somewhat weathered and semi-translucent.
The semi-transparent colourless shells <1% are reminiscent of windowpane oysters, having little or no aragonite and are almost 100% layered conchiolin/calcite.
the pearlescence in some shells can be seen to include a vivid and wide array of colours although it is relatively rare to have greens and blues, the typical pearlescence range for Anomia Descripta are "dominantly pink" but include red, yellow and purple overtones.

Sorry for the info-dump, I personally find these particular oysters to be very interesting and have spent countless hours searching for them.
So far, I've only found a handful of blister pearls of varying lustre, but, I intend to lobby the Parramatta River Estuary Management Committee regarding a proposal to attempt culturing pearls from these oysters with the expressed intent to begin commercial farming in the near future if possible.

 

[Aussie gemologist]

the first photo displays the typical pearlescent spectrum.
the second picture is backlit to display a high level translucency.
the third picture is to show an unusually colourful and vibrant pearlescence owing to a piece of vegetable matter trapped between the shell layers.

I forgot to mention, that whilst I am set on attempting to seed these oysters, it may be worth noting that this species would no doubt be one of the smallest species of oyster suitable for seeding, the largest shells of this Anomia I've found were measuring a mere 10cm across and the shells typically only survive to 5-6cm on average.

Here's hoping that I can convince the relevant bodies to support my attempts, and, maybe some day in the years to come, we'll have a new variety of saltwater pearl to enjoy, albeit possibly only available in small sizes, I would predict pearl sizes from this species up to a maximum of possibly 8mm.

 

[Aussie gemologist]

Just want to point out that this thread is 12 years old. Roy, the original poster, was last on Pearl Guide on October 25, 2011.
His pearls are dyed freshwater pearl (see posts #8 and #15 by pearl experts Lagoon Island Pearls and jshepherd.)

I had noticed it was an old thread,
In a way, I just wish I had seen it sooner, I felt compelled to post here as, it seemed the perfect opportunity to discuss brackish water pearls, there aren't too many discussions dealing with this niche subject.
I find it to be a fascinating topic, subsequently, I've posted some photos of some brackish water pearl producing saltwater oysters that are local to me.

 

[CortezPearls]

This is a picture of the black pearls from this environment:

these are dyed fresh water pearls

 

[CortezPearls]

Pearls from these types of mollusks would be very rare, their shells being so FLAT that the pearls would have a really hard time finding enough space to grow...
I read about a fishery of a related species in Sri-Lanka at the time of its independence from Britain, but the focus was on the shells, since they were used to produce beautiful ornaments.

 

[CortezPearls]

Pearls from these types of mollusks would be very rare, their shells being so FLAT that the pearls would have a really hard time finding enough space to grow...
I read about a fishery of a related species in Sri-Lanka at the time of its independence from Britain, but the focus was on the shells, since they were used to produce beautiful ornaments.

Found it!

 

[jshepherd]

Found it!

Interesting. Window-pane oysters ...

 

[Aussie gemologist]

Pearls from these types of mollusks would be very rare, their shells being so FLAT that the pearls would have a really hard time finding enough space to grow...
I read about a fishery of a related species in Sri-Lanka at the time of its independence from Britain, but the focus was on the shells, since they were used to produce beautiful ornaments.

Indeed, you are quite correct in what you say regarding windowpane oysters "placuna placenta" and whilst the oysters I'm speaking of share many similarities to the windowpane oysters, the two species are also quite distinctly different in a number of ways, most notably the shape, as with all species of anomidae, the shell shape including depth are highly variable, the mollusks within this family are seen to take form based upon the shape of the object they rest upon due to their attachment via a byssal complex.
Furthermore, while it may be common to find somewhat flat examples within this species as also with others in the family, they are not bound to this habit as are the placuna placenta, many anomidae shell are seen to be quite domed in appearance and more than capable of hosting a round pearl of a suitable size for use in industry.

As much as it is true that these oysters may not be suitable for growing pearls to the sizes seen in many of the other species currently commercially farmed, I do however believe that if these oysters are able to be successfully seeded, appreciation for the pearls these oysters may produce could be well worth the time and effort.

P.S. This particular species I had labelled as Anomia Descripta in my earlier post is generally referred to as Anomia Trigonopsis my apologies if there was any confusion caused.

Pearls from these types of mollusks would be very rare, their shells being so FLAT that the pearls would have a really hard time finding enough space to grow...
I read about a fishery of a related species in Sri-Lanka at the time of its independence from Britain, but the focus was on the shells, since they were used to produce beautiful ornaments.

 

[CortezPearls]

I mean EVERYTHING is possible if you set your sights on it. It may be that the end result is not commercially viable, but at least technically possible. And people may love the product and seek it in troves too...EVERYTHING is possible. I would not tell anyone to not try, because that is why I ended up producing pearls: after being told it would not be possible.
And a species has a lot of plasticity in its shape, so when farm-raised some organisms look quite different from their wild-grown counterparts.
I -for one- would WELCOME a new cultured pearl into existence.