Naturally black Chinese sea water pearls... possible??

[Silvia_Bonvini]

I just came back from one of Shanghai's pearl markets tonight, where I had a interesting discussion with a girl at one of the stores.
My colleague wanted some help to buy "grey" pearls for a friend, so we went and started checking out different options. At one point the girl took out a hank of pitch black 5-6 mm pearls that she claimed to be chinese salt water cultured in the south of China and that the colour was natural. I told her that was impossible but she kept insisting and promising they were natural colour. I asked then what kind of oyster they would use to culture them, but I asked the question in English as (shamefully) I couldn't remember the chinese word for oyster. She didn't really catch the question so I said: "do they use Akoya oysters? The japanese oysters?" and she said yes. But I'm not sure she really got my question either. Again, I told her that there are no black pearls coming from Akoya oysters. And again se swore they were natural colour. Keep in mind that they usually discose the treatments without problems as soon as they realize you are knowledgable enough not to be made fun of.
Right then I totally disregarded the dicussion as silly, so barely looked at the pearls, but on my way back I kept thinking about how sure she sounded...

Any chance at all that there can be black Chinese pearls??

[Kevin Canning]

pitch black and I'm assuming the color was uniform, no chance they are naturally colored. As you know its not unheard of for someone in a Chinese market to "stretch" the truth a little and it seems something could have been lost in translation as well.

Either way don't worry you didn't miss anything special, they are dyed black not natural.

[Mka4972]

Agree, Dyed...

[Silvia_Bonvini]

Thank you! I was also pretty sure. I actually think the poor girl was genuine, her boss must have told her they were natural colour! I will totally go back and tell her :-p

[jshepherd]

That is very possible. If you ever have the chance to visit one of those kiosks in Hawaii or at an attraction like Universal Studios, listen to the sales people talk about (1) how the pearl has been growing inside the shell for up to four years, (2) how the x-ray the shell to make sure the pearl is inside, (3) how it is cultured with a grain of sand ... the list goes on.

The genuinely don't know that they are selling oysters that were impregnated with the pearls and not cultured in the host shell at all - often freshwater in a saltwater shell.

[pearlescence]

Do you mean those pickled shells? I had a customer once who was told her pearl was green because the oyster was sick...
I have seen them available wholesale from China for about 50c a pop