Dyed or Naturally Colored South Sea & Tahitian Pearls?

[pearlescence]

Not by the trayful at any rate, JP. They had hundreds of strands of the horrible things at the last two or three shows. I won't do business with them these days.

 

[LondonPearl]

Most of the colour treatment to this type of pearl takes place in Japan. Much of the "gold" South Sea that leaves Japan was not that colour when it arrived.....

 

[ericw]

When I'll have a "true" GSSP in hands, I'll tell you what's the matter inside...

 

[jshepherd]

Color-treated gold South Sea are pretty common and easy to spot at the shows. I've seen them here in the US and at the shows in Hong Kong. The treatments are disclosed as far as I've seen and the pearls are a dark gold but very inexpensive. Dark gold South Sea pearls are extremely expensive.

It's difficult to discern a natural-color GSSP from a treated pearl without some experience. A couple of telltale signs would be the very small appearance of what look like Newton rings, visible conchiolin that has changed colors usually appearing as a sort of reddish tone and dye concentrations in blemishes.

To give one an idea of the difference in value, you could buy a dark dyed strand for a thousand dollars. You could spend $10,000 on the same strand with natural colors. In larger sizes, the spread would increase.

 

[Katbran]

I was looking at pearls in an office and the owner came over with these three strands - three different shades of pale gold/champagne. He offered up that the right side strand, the slightly darker one, was colour enhanced. You can see it's not really dark but it probably started out like the lighter one.

You can see it's has a faint red cast . It was a pretty strand and not the usual dark gold colour and the red wasn't as noticeable as it is in the photo.. the light in the offices can be shockingly bad.

 

[turquoise712]

What about the pair of 12mm undrilled SSP’s and 14.5mm piece i bought recently in Greenhills? They looked like those in the above 12/13mm golden champagne pearl photo, taken out from the locker and bargained down to $250 each with certificate and return guarantee. Owner said they were unenhanced natural colour, after I initially said I didn’t like the pale ones in her glass cabinets which were natural and those hanging in strands which were darker but tinted. The “hidden, locked up” ones were supposedly ‘Jewelmer’ quality and she initially didn’t want to sell for that price. Her behaviour made me trust my buys, but should I?