The last week or so I have been having an interesting although somewhat confused back and forth email ride with someone who showed me a photo of a strand of what may possibly be Japan Kasumi pearls purchased at Gump's (a high end retail department store in San Francisco). I have not seen the invoice but it was purchased in "circa" 1982. The strand does bare resemblance to some vintage Japanese freshwater strands we have in our archive, and of course the date purchased would mean that they definitely not Chinese fresh water pearls.
This is a photo of their strand.
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I did my best to educate the inquirer about Japan Kasumi pearls and gave my best assessment.
During the course of the emails it became clear that the owner did not consider the characteristic rippled surface of Japan Kasumi pearls to be an indication of a valuable item. (understandable).. They also seemed to consider the deeper colors to be garish and I suppose what they meant was that the deep colors of Japan Kasumi pearls are not white and thus not "pearl color".
They "challenged" me to come up with a strand that surpassed the quality of theirs.
As we do not stock many of the round or near round Japan Kasumi pearls ... they do not have the rich deep colors and rainbow overtones that their wrinkled counterparts display... I made a huge mess of the table, and put a strand together with the best loose Japan Kasumi pearls we generally reserve for special one of a kind jewelry, and designer requests.
Even though I was a bit charged by the "challenge"... I SO enjoyed laying out this strand.
Since this is a very rare thing for me to do... In fact I don't remember putting together such a round strand of Japan Kasumi pearls EVER. (mind you, this is simply a lay out, not a finished piece).
The 16" strand of natural color Japan Kasumi near round pearls ranging in size from 14.3 - 10mm. These pearls were purchased by us at Lake Kasumi ga Ura over the course of the last ten years. (I know because Fuji is a master record keeper
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So.... in case anyone here (besides the pearl experts and uber educated among you) was wondering.. YES Japan Kasumi pearls can be ROUND! They may not have rainbow overtones.. but they sure made my heart sing.
All best to all you pearls.. with Spring warmth from San Rafael!
