Hi Jeremy
I agree with you so thoroughly.
And I thank you for providing them to us!
The gem quality CFWP is the best pearl available on the planet! The Chinese have really learned how to grow freshwater pearls and they did not stop when they achieved the lower quality, but kept on learning how to do a fantastic job culturing these un-beaded beauties into rounder and rounder shapes. (Amazing technique to do this without a prosthetic device inside.
)
I also think the current reasonable prices for best quality CFW pearls makes them the pearl of choice for collecters and a good chance to take for investors. I am sure they will only increase in value as the competition for a limited number of perfect pearls among the gazillion off-rounds heats up.
BTW Richard, Fuji Voll of Pacific Pearls is still selling at the gem show and is always one of my favorites. He personally hangs out in the Pavilion at the River Park Inn, but has a booth at the GYX too. He seems to have no talent for the internet, though but he is a person I would and have bought sight unseen pearls from over the phone. I have a phone number for him if anyone is interested. He has reasonable prices which drop sharply if you buy several strands of a kind.
I have a picture of one of my favorite necklaces with pearls from Fuji in my thread in Show Us Your Pearls (Picture #7,
here.) I call this strand pillow or puff pearls. They are perfectly matched in size and shape which is a kind of puffy pillow shape. I added 2mm hand carved little round coral beads from the 1950's in between.
