[Caitlin]

There may be nothing new in this article, but it was in TIME magazine....

Pearl City for Tourists might be more like it? Wouldn't Zhuji be the pearl city for pros?

[Raisondetre]

Coming from the TIME magazine I expected more research regarding natural vs. cultured and real vs. faux pearls. It's just not right for them to say natural pearls are the only real pearls. How about the rest - they all come from shells and aren't pulverized MOP beads or dipped in fish-scales. It's not even hard to google.

[CortezPearls]

The Debate between natural vs cultured pearls was ended in the early XXth century in Paris: cultured pearls ARE pearls... I don't know why it is still a problem for the authors of that Time Magazine article. They really need better researchers.

[Caitlin]

That article may have been written by a "real pearl" lover. As you know they are very loud about their opinion and will promote it anywhere possible, including Time Magazine and even on this forum.

Only real pearls can be called "pearls" and/or "real" or "natural" pearls.

Cultured pearls are not real or natural pearls They must properly always have "cultured " directly connected to the the word "pearl"- every single time the word pearl is used........

According to Gina La Tendresse's 2 or so posts on this forum, that was the only point she has ever made over here and it was a point she made most strongly.

So yes, cultured pearls are cultured pearls are cultured pearls...they are not and never should be just pearls as a stand alone word.

Here, I brought her quote over here for your ease

It is very clearly stated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that a pearl (natural pearl) is a calcareous concretion which has not been caused or induced by humans. "Keshi pearls" are a bi-product of pearl culture. "Freshwater pearls" are cultured pearls whether they are nucleated with a shell nuclei or tissue graft. I have added quotes around the terms "keshi pearls" and "freshwater pearls", because the FTC clearly states the following: "It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "pearl" to describe, identify, or refer to a cultured pearl unless it is immediately preceded, with equal conspicuousness, by the word "cultured" or "cultivated," or by some other word or phrase of like meaning, so as to indicate definitely and clearly that the product is not a pearl."
Translation: "Keshi pearl" is correctly identified as keshi cultured pearl. "Freshwater pearl" is correctly identified as freshwater cultured pearl. "Akoya pearl" is correcty identified as Akoya cultured pearl. And so on with all pearls that are cultured around the world. I do acknowledge that adding the word cultured to all the varieties of cultured pearls becomes excessive when writing or speaking about pearls, however, it is the correct way. Pearls created by mother nature were here first. And as a dealer of natural pearls, I reinforce the use of this terminology.

[Valeria101]

Well... it is an article about non-cultured pearls. It may be a very rare, impractical perspective... but it is there. And the numbers, and the pearls are spectacular.

'Wonder how many are in the position to (still) snub at 'cultured pearls' today Probably not many individuals at all (at least counting just those who can act on their beliefs in their choice and acquisition of pearls). And, could you name a seller?

In flesh and bone I've found this attitude just once, from the sibling of a family owning some quantity of natural pearls and quite some despise of anything else, apparently. Would imagine one could be annoyed seeing their old pearls turned from the talk of the town into a 'conversation piece' and relegated to the slow motion of the antique jewelry market for decades... unless those natural pearls could hold against the look of the cultured 'bastards' - which is quite some tall order, isn't it. How things have changed from 2001, when I heard that!

Fortunately, I am not facing their dilemma.


On the other hand: wait a minute! How many OTHER sources of NATURAL black pearls are there - aside your stash, 'CortezPearls' and some random treasure ?

[Caitlin]

The part Gina quoted is not just in reference to keshi, it is the FTC regulation re cultured pearls. The thread just happened to be about keshi and keshi is one area where people are still struggling with consistency of terminology.

In spite of their lofty attitude, owners and purveyers of natural pearls are a tiny minority and their once exclusive kingdom has been overrun by PPB's.........Oh woe are they! I too come from a family that owned natural pearls exclusively. In fact, my grandfather had a pearling dhow which plied the Persian Gulf until the mid -1950's when he retired.

Bahrain still sells only natural pearls- at least the last I heard, but I may be out of date. They may now accept solid nacre pearls too, though I doubt it. I asked that question and did not get an answer yet.

And, could you name a seller?

The Yateem family Of Bahrain is probably still in business as pearl purveyers as well as other jewelry. I am sure a Bahrain phone book would turn up a few more. I have heard that other gulf countries are also still trading in pearls. Have you seen the vaults of the Bank of Brunei? They have literally a ton of natural pearls. We have pix somewhere on this site. Maybe in Strack too.

There is still some natural pearl fishing going on in parts of the Persian gulf, but it is highly regulated (no scuba suits) and I don't think it is commercial. The natural pearls people are an insular group who form their own mini-networks. Since natural pearls of some size and good matching are selling for millions when they do hit the market, natural pearl brokering is still a going trade for an elite few.

It may be that in another decade the vocabulary of cultured pearls will envelop the natural pearls and there will be no distinction except to the the tiny minority, if any of them are left. But that will take changing the federal rules regarding calling cultured pearls cultured.

[jshepherd]

I responded to this in a new thread here:
http://www.pearl-guide.com/forum/showthread.php?p=15161

[Raisondetre]

The TIME article is uneducated as far as I'm concerned. The tooth test will not distinguish natural vs. cultured pearls. And seriously, if a person's at a large scale trade show which sources from pearl farms all over the world, and is located in HK/China where the majority of cultured freshwater occurs, it is just plain ignorant to say that. Since when has there been a large scale trade show for natural pearls? It's so rare you'd be lucky to get one vendor which specializes in their sales. Sea of Cortez pearls are rare enough, and the public almost never gets their hands on it. And it's not as rare as natural. I wonder what the fact checker gets paid for.

[Valeria101]

Well they do say that:

"The teeth-test, of course, is overrated..." etc. Besides, it refers to identification of cultured pearls - what the lady was shopping for, clearly - and simulated. When she says 'natural' she refers to cultured pearls as opposed to simulated. Then, the journalists takes the article on a different route and starts to talks about 'natural' as non-cultured in the next paragraph [with 'in these sense...' etc].

Or at least, that's what it sounds like to me.

and

"Real, better known as natural, pearls are practically impossible to buy in Hong Kong or anywhere else, these days." etc.

I cannot find any reference to a trade show for naturals.

Although... if anything comes close would be the auctions there. HK is the largest market for natural pearls, at least for this one channel.

I don't find much to argue about in the piece. They do seem to take the natural (non-cultured) for granted a bit, as a normal and usual market presence albeit at high prices - but again, they are in Hong Kong. And there are allot of topics put together - an industry and product overview, history, buyer attitudes... Obviously a feat to put together, but does feel a bit like information overload if this were the first thing anyone would read about pearls.

However, I find the tone just right for a wise 'promotion' that isn't actually pushing anything but would make readers confident about pearls in general nonetheless. Maybe it wasn't intended that way... but I'd bet it works Wish this was the ONLY kind of advertising ever so I could tun off the pop up and adware blocker. Phew!