Characteristics of Pearls

Type: 

  • Tissue Nucleated Freshwater Pearl: Do not contain bead nuclei and are only composed of nacre
  • Bead Nucleated Freshwater Pearl : Many modern big freshwater pearls (brands Edison) as well as fancy baroque shapes such as clover or hearts
  • Saltwater Pearl：Tahitian and south sea pearls, Akoya pearls


Lustre: 

  • Excellent, Outstanding lustre, deep mirror-like and clarity
  • Brilliant, Nice sharp and clean reflection
  • Very Bright, Nice and good reflection
  • Bright, Nice light reflection, reflection image slightly fuzzy
  • Pale, Reflections are faint, not vivid and foggy, cloudy
  • Poor, Reflections are weak, dull and diffuse


Shape: 

  • Perfectly round : Completely spherical without flat parts or notches
  • Round : Variation of diameter being no more than 2%
  • Slightly Off-round : Practically round to the naked eye
  • Near round : Slightly semi-round, elongated, or flattened.
  • Oval/Rice : Egg-shaped, slightly rounded and oblong.
  • Button : Symmetrical, flattened on one side
  • Drop : Rounded pear shape.
  • Semi-baroque : Slightly oval, irregular. Button or drop shape.
  • Baroque : Quite capricious and asymmetrical shapes.
  • Demi-perles : Hemispherical pearls glued to the shell, such as Mabe pearl

 

Surface: 

  • Clean (Perfect to Almost Perfect)

  1. Perfect : No defects, smooth and clean surface, but they might have textured surface due to their layered nacre structure.

  2. Almost Perfect : The surface has some winkles, small pits, smooth overall, not noticeable if you don't look closely

  • Slight imperfections (Very Slight to Slight Imperfections) Wrinkles or pinholes and small bumps on the surface, which are not obvious when worn and are not visible from a social distance
  • Moderate imperfections: Shows visible defects on the surface.
  • Heavy imperfections: Obvious defects on the surface of the beads. the durabilities could be affected.