[Casey.R]

Where were most of the cultured pearls coming from during this time?

-Casey

[Selectraders]

During the 1970's the bulk of the world's output came from Japan. The Chinese were culturing freshwater pearls in abundance, but they could not compete with the quality coming out of Lake Biwa in Japan. Akoya pearls were almost exclusively from Japan as the first Chinese akoyas appeared in the early 70's, but the quality was not good.

Lake Biwa became so polluted in the 70's that the tide changed and the bulk started coming out of China. This is the same to this day, except now the majority of akoya pearls come from China as well. It is widely known that most of the Chinese pearls make their way to Japan where they are worked and sold as Japanese pearls. The Chinese quality has gotten that good in nearly all sizes up to 8mm.

Michael

www.selectraders.co.uk

[PearlsAndJade.com]

I was a pilot for Pan Am and spent a lot of time in Hong Kong and Japan during the 70's and 80's. I saw some of the first Chinese pearls in Hong Kong then and didn't particularly care for them.

They were making an imitation pearl then that looked pretty good. I forgot the process they used, but I bought a bunch of them to give to my daughters and relatives.

In Tokyo I bought my wife a beautiful akoya necklace and it looks as good today as it did then because the nacre was much thicker then. During that period they would grow from 2 to 3 years.

The yen was much much lower than it is now, so its too bad I didn't have forward vision so I could have stocked up on akoyas, especially the Mikimotos, and I would now have a valuable collection.

Bill