"There are very few round bead nucleated coming out of China. Those that are bead nucleated nearly universally have tails." Part Quote from Jeremy Shepherd
To All in the Know and Otherwise
There are many strands and necklaces sold out of China which are varied in colour. A necklace may have white, pink and lavender in it and called by the seller (on ebay) SS pearls. These pearls are often 8 or 9 mm in diam. Also round or nearly round. What are these strands likely to be. Dyed Akoya, FW pearls or is it possible that they are SW from the South China Sea. If from the South China Sea is it correct in calling them SS pearls? I have also seen 10 mm black pearls called Japanese Pearls - so what are these. Can Akoya grow that big. I do realise that Akoya cannot be black unless dyed but what are they really likely to be... Once again are they likely to be FW or SW. They can be quite good looking too although it seems that Chinese sellers call them anything that takes their fancy at the time. Can get very confusing unless one is an expert.
Sellers all over the world buy these items and then pass them off as whatever they were called by the seller bought from. I feel that most of these pearls are not labelled correctly. But maybe they just aren't sure themselves so pass on the disinformation. i.e. SS pearls or Japanese pearls to make the greatest profit without the hassle of really identifying them or worrying about doing so.
I have thought that most likely many of these are FW but if FW pearls out of China generally have tails that cannot be. So confusion reigns.
And many pearls sold as freshwater are round or very nearly so and if tissue cultivated how can this be?
Thanks, Bodecia.