Black ring?

[Valeria101]

Among the rather low quality real stuff on Ebay, once in a while some intriguing curio pops up.

For example, THIS (http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-WHITE-NATURAL-ONE-OF-A-KIND-SOUTH-SEA-PEARL_W0QQitemZ200035530599QQihZ010QQcategoryZ1024 5QQcmdZViewItem) one.

Is the dark circle conchiolin sans aragonite?

Badly applied glue?

... just curious what that shocking looking pearl might have to say. Is this a common sort of flaw?

It is a bit strange how really rough pearls are never seen while less-than-gem-grade versions of precious minerals are always there to put things into perspective. It just seemed normal to dig examples out, once the persisting bad vibes of cultured pearls being near-fake is getting progressively washed away. :)

[Satine De La Courcel]

Interesting, the last pearl I heard of that had white and black colors is teh Palatinate pearl which is half white and half black! very pretty...

Cheers
Ash

[purepearls]

The pearl looks like a Baroque South Sea pearl. I doubt it is natural if they are selling it for $54. The black line appears to have occurred naturally as the pearl was forming. This does sometimes occur. It would make a nice pearl for a one-of-a-kind designer piece.

[Valeria101]

...the last pearl I heard of that had white and black colors is the Palatinate pearl which is half white and half black


Yeah, I must say that thought crossed my mind too. That pearl looks as if it were dipped in something, with the pattern inconsistent with random rotation. Same for the Ebay drop. Wonder how could they form with such strange structure?

Multicolor crystals seem fairly honest - one can equate color distribution with growth pattern, but these pearls get me nicely lost! :cool: