I'm interested in purchasing a strand of large baroque-shaped pearls with strong orient. I do have a preference toward solid nacre pearls so, I'm thinking my best choices are either south sea keishi or baroque freshwater. I'm wondering, what would be the virtues of south sea over freshwater and vice versa? I think I might have a preference for freshwater, only because some of the most spectacularly iridescent pearls I've seen have been baroque freshwater. I see individual pearls from time to time with that quality, but no complete strands. Does anyone know where I might look for a strand like this?

So far, the only large baroque or keishi strands I've seen anywhere are on ebay, listed by sellers in Asia. I'm skeptical of the actual quality. I'd prefer to find them through a more established vendor so I can be sure of what I'm getting. I'm hoping someone on the forum can help me make a more informed decision on which type of pearl I should be looking for and maybe point me in a good direction to look.

Thanks!

Here's an example of a very large baroque South Sea strand we carried about a year ago, but it was in the $7k range if I remember correctly. It had quite a bit of orient that doesn't show up well in the picture.

Care Ehret (DruzyDesign) has a silver-blue South Sea (large) keshi necklace with 22K granulated spacers and clasp for around $3K on her eBay store. Her jewelry is also sold at Gem and Jewelry shows (not her personally, she had representatives at the show in Santa Monica, CA). I really like her work, she also has Sea of Cortez, Kasumi and Cook Island pearls. Sometimes she has P.margaritifera ("black") keshi pieces, I think she had a bracelet available recently. I've never seen any of the "alternative" high quality pearls for sale anywhere but then I'm not a big shopper. She also has FW keshi pearls if that's what you'd like.

I have a few suggestions, but I want to make clear that I have no affiliations with any of the followings, and I haven't even bought their stuff. I am also in the market for some jewelry and can't make up my mind. In the meantime I learn about some of these companies through the geeky way, i.e., reading books and surfing the web. ( I have two young children and it is very difficult to go to jewelry stores with them and I won't want to leave them with a babysitter for non-essential shopping, so I sometimes just read a little after they sleep at night.)

A&Z Pearls: You can look at their webpage www.azpearls.com and find a store near you. While you are at their webpage, you can check out their catalog. I especially like the "One of a kind" jewelry (it takes a little while to load the webpage). They use baroque and unique shape pearls and make very beautiful art out of them. E.g., flowers made with baroque freshwater pearls (they indicate whether the pearls are natural colors), leaves of rose made with keshi pearls. There is a bird in the amazon design using several types of pearl that is absolutely stunning--the design is beautiful, and the pearls do seem to have beautiful irisdescence/orient. There is a short quote of something the A&Z president said in Richard Wise' book, I believe that is how I checked out their webpage to begin with. I am pretty sure the company is also mentioned in Antoniette Matlins' Pearl book (I already returned the book to the library so can't check). In other words, this is probably a high-end company. If you want a strand of pearl with no design may be some place else can offer better pricing.

www.evejewelry.com, they have some keshi pieces, they seem to have nice designs, but it was hard to tell the quality of the pearls from their pictures.

King's Ransom Pearls (pearlgoddess.com): I enquired about this webpage on this forum but did not get any reply. On the webpage they indicated the owner had conducted a GIA seminar on pearls so I am guessing she is knowledgeable. The pearls on the webpage look nice with beautiful colors.

Richard Wise' store (www.rwwise.com) has some baroque pearls. Most of the other stuff on the webpage (when the price is shown) is high-end stuff with beautiful design.

pearlparadise: I have just one freshadama necklace from them (sweet hubby bought it), I like it. If you live in LA may be you can see personally whether they have some baroque freshwater and keshi that are not shown on their webpage.

Good luck and let us know if you find some good sources.

Thanks! Those are some good suggestions.
I already have a freshadama strand that I love. They are so beautiful and perfect. I'd like to find a baroque stand of solid nacre pearls because they seem a little more casual-looking to me.
I'll check out the vendors listed and let you know if I find anything.

What about south sea keshi vs. freshwater baroque? Would one typically show more iridescence?

I can relate to your hunt for nice FWP baroques! Unfortunately, I don't have any hint to add to the existing list on this thread, as I have yet to get mine... But, there is this Ebay shop I stumbled upon recently that seems to have interesting pearls, including some largish FWP baroques.

Here's what I am talking about: LINK

There are a couple more items - a full strand and a half, but not quite the same type and smaller size. I don't think I want to risk them without having seen anything similar anywhere else though. I meant to post these here for feedback sake, so here it goes. This is not an endorsement.

To begin with, SS and FWP baroques don't seem to have similar shapes o sizes: FWP are smaller overall, SS come in rounder (or thicker, if you want) shapes because there is a nucleus involved. Clearly, there is HUGE difference in price. Since now high quality FWP are such a bargain, I am very intent to find out about FWP options before committing for a baroque strand. That shop was my first relevant find though. Other baroque FWP seen in person were not inspiring at all (dull). But then, I would not consider the selection representative at all - local shops are not that forward thinking

Hi Valeria 101,
The link you provided are to what are being advertised as Keishi pearls and yes they are baroque in shape but they are Keishi pearls. The quality freshwater Keishi that I have seen show more orient than the baroques that I have seen and tend to be a little more expensive than a string of baroque.

If you ask a dealer to see baroque pearls you will be shown one type of pearl if you ask for Keishi you will be shown another type of pearl. The nice fat Keishi that I have seen in strings have been called nugget Keishi which says they are fat as opposed to the large quanties of thin keishi pearls that are being sold.
I am only referring here to freshwater keishi.
Doug

Interesting. I am looking for a fuller shaped pearl, not a stick pearl. So, there is such a thing as freshwater keishi? I'm looking for a strand of solid-nacre pearls with strong orient, high luster, and a large, full-shape. I'd be plenty happy if I could find a freshwater strand with those characteristics. Do South Sea pearls ever exhibit strong orient? I've really only seen great iridescence in nice freshwater pearls, maybe because of the thickness of nacre?

Originally Posted by xeresana

I've really had no luck finding large, full-shaped, solid nacre pearls with good orient. I thought it would be an easy little search but it's turned into quite a hunt.

No surprise there... As soon as you don't want standard small-round-pinkish-fake-looking pearls, anything turns into a hunt. You may want to take a look at SS keshi (not nucleated baroques SS) ... some look impressive to me, at least compared to other SS pearls. I don't have Zeide's perspective to know what is the best out there, so what looked nice to me is very relative.

This forum introduced Cook and Cortez pearls in my vocabulary. Pictures look great, but... aside one Ebay shop frequently mentioned here for all the good reasons, where to find them? Just by intuition, where THESE come from, there must be more and more chances for matching. A week or so ago there were a couple of pearl necklaces on list there that I don't see now... It can't hurt to ask, as long as taking one pearl in a bracelet and a pair of earrings as a promise for bigger and better things to come doesn't sound too crazy.

The said SS keshi I saw came from a high brow NYC shop. There is a rather unimpressive website attached: www.rare1.com Sure enough, I am not a client! Some colleagues were... and that is how I came to know the place.

There must be other sources, of course. Perhaps even the sellers posting here... You never know.

Searching for such pearls sounds more like pioneering work, rather then normal shopping!

For SS, try this too: Richard Wise's shop at www.rwwise.com. There is teaser silver baroque strand posted side by side with FW thin keshi ('second harvest pearls'?) The website is not everything.

In the current issue of "Pearl World" magazine on pg. 21, there is a
very large (14.5mm - 18.6mm) and beautiful strand of FW baroque pearls
from A&Z Pearls. They look very special. I do not know how to post
pictures to this forum, but if someone else is able to post it, with the
proper permission, you'll see what I mean.

Also, for the past several years, I have been collecting large SS keshi
pearls. Finally, I have just collected enough pearls for a strand of
natural color golden SS keshis and soon (hopefully), I'll have just
enough pearls for a white strand. I have read that high quality SS keshi
pearls are quite rare, and now that I am ready for them to be drilled for
a necklace, I am wondering if the drill holes will decrease the value
of the pearls. Does anyone know if this is true. Also, I will be
drilling these pearls myself; I have the machine and am fairly experienced.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

[jshepherd]

I saw that picture just before it went to print. Bo Torrey told me about it after the Vegas show. I believe A&Z was offering it (wholesale) for about #####. A&Z (Mr. Avi Raz) deals mainly with jewelers, I believe on memmo. That is what I have heard, and could explain their high pricing.

The pictured strand is definitely a showcase piece, however.

Wow. I had no idea how hard it is to find nice quality baroque solid-nacre pearls! I thought the market would be just full of freshwaters waiting for me to find them.

Zeide, those pearls sound really lovely. I like pearls that do tricks. But, from your description, they sound out of my price range.

Jeremy, do you have any plans for baroque freshadamas? I have a strand of white freshadamas that I love! Baroque would be fabulous!

[jshepherd]

We may have to delve into them. We have been getting more and more requests. The real trick will be to find a supply of pearl that is unique, very high end, and plentiful enough to carry. The vast majority of baroques in China I would never dream of carrying, but that strand from A & Z has peaked my interest, especially considering what they sold it for.
I just realized after reading the article today in Pearl World that I let the cat out of the bag. The price the baroque was sold for was to remain secret. I may have to go back and edit that post so I do not get my friend in trouble.

I'd be interested in those, too!

Perle

Well! I guess I best line up for the baroques too!! It is really hard to get them in any size. I especially like them in other than white.
Pattye Saab