I've purchased a couple huge monsters lately from The Agustus Collection that might be considered "souffle" pearls, though they're actually quite nice. Very large South Sea baroques that are definitely hollow. Definitely bead-nucleated, though, so I guess in light of that they wouldn't fit the definition. One of them was already drilled and incorporated into a necklace, and the bead is emerging slightly at the back; the other one rattles when you shake it, so the bead is inside, but clearly much smaller than the final pearl. I'm rather nervous about drilling that one; haven't yet decided what I'll do with it. I wonder how these mutations form? They also have a very distinctive silvery hue and luster that might be typical of Indonesian pearls (?). If I'm able to attend the upcoming ruckus, I'll bring them along for show-and-tell and some expert opinions (but nobody gets to take a hammer to them - sorry!).
Sheri