While watching news on TV you may notice that the first ladies of each country like to wear pearl jewelry. Beautiful pearl match with their fashion dress perfectly. The pearl necklaces they wear look so valuable and different. I often wonder how much of that on their neck, how I can identity theirs as top quality pearls different from the common ones.
As regarding to the pearl grading, we apparently suggest the top pearl. The most acceptable top pearl is A-AAA. But as I am sure you have found, this is not only subjective, but many retailers add additional grades to their mix. When comparing our pearls to another store with similar standards, but with an additional grading system, our AA grade pearls should approximate another offer’s AAA quality. But only if this seller carries high-quality Akoya pearls. This is important because if this seller does not have access to top-quality pearls, a low grade, albeit their best, may be categorized as ‘AAA’, even though it is nowhere near the best grade available.
Unfortunately when purchasing pearls either online or in a store you have to rely upon the honesty of the seller to know exactly what you are going to get. I would suggest asking very direct questions, and have them explain their grading as explicitly as I have explained above. As with natural pearls, high quality lustrous pearls make up only a fraction of the pearls available on the market, and command the very highest prices.Since a very lustrous baroque pearl is probably more desirable than a round milky pearl, lustre is generally considered to be one of the most important aspects of a pearl’s grading and valuation.
Pearls come in a fascinating variety of shapes, and whilst the rounder the pearl, the more valuable it is, the baroque and off-round shapes have become very popular today. Naturally, this puts the price of the pearls within the budget of a larger market. Round is generally the most expensive variety. A proper round pearl is symmetrical and will roll in a straight line. Again, only a small percentage of total pearl production will give you true round pearls.