Ignorance is not Bliss

BeadersSecret

Professional Rethreader
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
508
Whilst on a recent holiday I spied this in a shop and was shocked to see the labeling and price on these cream freshwater potato pearls.

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Maybe the gold clasp is a biggest one!:)
Sometimes, it's the standing of the shop which prices supplies.
Yesterday, I have seen earrings priced about 9000 dollars, with two 11mm diameter cream SSP, A graded, and mounting with a few little diamonds (synthetised or not synthetised?)...
 
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Hmmm I saw in an aquarium in Kuala Lumpur jewelry pieces made of potato-shaped freshwater pearls sold as genuine south sea pearls from Borneo.....
 
FWP looking like SSP are no rare, about lustre, but shapes make sure the difference, except for round pearls. Anyway, I think it's just a matter of subjectivity, to value so more south sea pearls than freshwater, that for exactly similar aspects: they are all cultured pearls. Only specific kind of SSP, as gold, for exemple, would have to be so high valued. Of course, I talk about first graded appearence, which is suffisant for most people which don't look at the thickness of nacre.
 
There is also scarcity to consider. Round SSP of high quality are scarcer than round FWP, so priced higher.

Earlier this year when I was at a fine jewelry store in Greenwich, I was shown a pink Edison strand and told it was SSP. I corrected the salesman, at which point he checked the tag and was surprised when he saw I was right. He didn't know about in-body bead nucleated freshwater pearls.
 
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