A STRING OF PEARLS CAN ACCOMPANY A WOMAN THROUGHOUT HER LIFE

It is therefore essential to choose the correct necklace to suit each person.

Thickness in nacre  - The thicker the nacre is, the longer the pearls will last, and usually the better their lustre will be.

Lustre - Always choose the pearls with the deepest lustre within the budget set, if necessary compromising on size and blemishes within the pearls, as it is the lustre which will light up the wearer’s face and will therefore be most flattering. Pearls re-establish the natural harmony of the face, making high cheekbones or a long nose less prominent.

Colour - Always choose the colour to suit the skin tone of the wearer best; also bear in mind the colour of the eyes. Bluish-grey pearls will generally suit someone with blue eyes, while a peacock green Tahitian pearl will suit someone with green eyes. Another factor that affects the overall harmony of the face is hair colour and this should be taken into consideration when selecting pearls.

A rough guideline of pearl colours that suit different skin tones is set out below:

·         Olive toned skin – golden pearls

·         Dark skin – white or warm cream pearls

·         Pinkish rosy complexion – rose to cream pearls

·         Pale skin – rose to white pearls

Shape - Choose what looks best, bearing in mind the shape of the face and the overall harmony of face, ears, neck and shoulders.

Surface Perfection – Check the purity of the pearl surface; a few marks give the pearls the hallmark of genuineness, but very blemished pearls drop in value.

Size – This should be the least important consideration. It is however essential to consider the overall build of the wearer. If she were very tall and broad a tiny single strand of pearls would look too lightweight.

Cultured and natural pearls sometimes have overtones; this effect makes the pearl very attractive and interesting to the eye. Pearls with peacock overtones can be worn with clothes of any colour, as the pearls themselves will echo any tone.

Decide the length and number of rows the wearer requires, bearing in mind her lifestyle. A Choker will accentuate the beauty of the shoulders, a graduated row will lengthen the face or slim down the neck, at a later stage a double row of pearls at the base of the neck will conceal the wrinkles of old age.

• Choker

• Standard short

• Standard long

• Matinée

• Opera

• Long Opera

• Rope

If pearls are to be worn away from the face, for example as a long necklace, the colour chosen can be more accentuated or stronger than the one that would normally be chosen to wear next to the face.

The best light to choose a pearl by is daylight, preferably strong midday sun, as the colour of the pearls will be affected less by added tonalities in weak sunlight.

Always place pearls on a white, flat surface. This will show up any blemishes in the pearl and will allow you to roll the strand and check for the blinking effect, which reveals very thin nacre.

If possible when viewing pearls use a magnifying glass or jeweller’s loupe, which will allow you to see within the drill hole and will help to assess the thickness of pearl nacre. When viewed in this way the nacre on a cultured pearl will show up as a coating over the mother of pearl bead; the border line is very clear rather like the side view of icing on a cake. Bear in mind that a good coating on a cultured oyster pearl is 0.5mm thick.

To have an idea of how much pearls should cost it is important to bear in mind that out of 100 pearls cultured:

·         10% die

·         10% become diseased          

·         30% of the pearl bearing oysters expel the core that has so painstakingly been introduced.

·         50% survive, out of which:

·         20% are rejected as unsaleable

·         25% are saleable

·         5% are the best quality

Natural pearls to the naked eye can look very similar to cultured pearls. The best way to find out whether pearls are cultured or natural is to discover by x-ray if there is a mother of pearl bead at the centre of the pearl.

To the naked eye there are a few further signs to look out for:

·         Natural pearls have smaller drill holes, usually 0.04mm, as natural pearls are valued not only by colour, amount of lustre, purity of skin and perfection of shape, but also by their weight. Naturally farmers keep as much of the original weight on the pearl as possible. Cultured pearls normally have a drill hole diameter of 0.06mm for ease of stringing.

·         If the drill hole is unusually large it could also mean that this pearl is natural, particularly if on inspection the interior of the pearl looks increasingly dark.

·         A natural pearl strand will usually have variations in size, shape and overtones as due to the scarcity of these pearls it is very difficult and time consuming to create an exactly matching row. It has been known for people to wait decades for pearls of a perfect match to be found.

As a broad indication Natural pearls cost ten times what their Cultured pearl counterparts do.

Do not be deceived by imitation pearls; they do not have the true pearl lustre, which makes the wearer’s face glow. Imitation pearls are intrinsically worthless. If expensive imitation pearls have overtones, these will be uniform throughout the strand and will not attract the eye in the same way as true pearls do. Another factor worth considering is that the coating on imitation pearls can easily chip off.

To check if a pearl is imitation or cultured or even natural, it has long been customary for people to bite them or pass them across their teeth. Imitation pearls will usually feel very smooth rather like cling film, while true pearls will feel slightly gritty. This tooth test is unhygienic and more importantly can damage a real pearl.

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