Unlike for diamonds, there’s no industry-wide system of grading pears. This means that it can be difficult for buyers to understand exactly what quality of pearl they’re getting. When it comes to pearl jewellery there are a lot of different considerations including the size and the matching of all the pearls that make up the piece (for example a necklace). To some extent individual quality is less important than the overall effect. However, sellers do have systems for grading the flaws, lustre and nacre - the three most important aspects of a pearl.

The two main grading systems are called the AAA-A system (usually used by sellers) and the A-D system (usually used by producers). The highest quality pearls (AAA and A respectively) have the least flaws and the highest lustre, whereas the lowest quality (A and D respectively) have the most flaws and the lowest lustre. Pearls with many flaws are considered unfit for use in jewellery.

Nacre is the outer surface of the pearl and the thickness of this nacre determines how durable a pearl is. Looked after properly pearls can last for generations but a thick layer of nacre helps - Tahitian pearls in fact aren’t even sold if the nacre is less than 0.8 of a milimetre.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Pearls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.