My first pearl buying experience: Freshadama's from pearlparadise.com

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Caitlin & Dana,

Pearls of the finest "melt" (a combination of soft white color with deep, clear, and quiet water and strong orient) in sizes of 7.5mm round and up are called Dana.

Zeide

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Zeide
"Dana" is in Pearls by Elisabeth Strack described as pearls of absolute perfection. p. 140 of the English edition, along with other descriptive terms. Your description is more complete. What is another source for natural pearl vocabulary?

An aside: In the English edition the list with "Dana" on it is opposite the Picture of the Royal Mushanifa necklace of Bahrain. The pictured example is the full-paged one with 32 strands of pearls going half way to the knees with big gold coins. It is modeled by a beautiful Bahraini young woman. She must become the Spirit of Bahrain when she has that on! What a legacy!

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Caitlin,

I've been told that Dana is a term of endearment that actually means enchanting and as a pearl term describes the above listed characteristics. Isn't it ironic that a person named Dana asks what the proper term for enchanting pearl is?

Zeide

 

[mikehrz]

Forgive my ignorance, but what language was the term "Dana" originally used in to describe pearls?

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Mike,

Arabic. However, its a very old word and is not the same as modern colloquial Arabic. It probably goes back to the Assyrian dialect spoken in Dilmun (now Bahrain).

Zeide