I've returned home today, my primary purpose being AGA yesterday and some related private meetings earlier in the week. Sold a little wine in the Tucson market as well.
A few personal highlights from the AGA morning pearl sessions:
Elisabeth Strack: The world of pearl developments, she was advised late that her talk was to include non-nacreous naturals so had too much material and didn't make it to the end. Yours truly got attribution for some shots of Nautilus shells and a purported Nautilus pearl. Generally standard information to make sure everyone was on the same page to start.
Thomas Hainschwang/GemLab(Liechtenstein):Incredible presentation impressing upon the AGA members the seriousness of the threat posed by various forms of improved natural pearl fakery. He proposed 3D X-Ray as a more practical and economical solution vs Micro-CT, allowing inspection of a far larger volume of pearls. He ended his talk expressing particular concern over the new, round unbeaded saltwaters from P. Maxima, thus far an enigma. Thomas went as far as to say that he would not personally purchase any purported natural from any Pinctada species (Margaritifera, Maxima, Radiata, Akoya, etc.) until the crime-in-progress is halted.
H?ctor Acosta and Megan Davis of Rose Pearls offered the public d?but and hands-on of their new cultured conchs from Florida. Good progress is being made, pearls shown were from samples harvested at various early stages, so nacre deposition rates are known. H?ctor told me that if business models allow, they would like to start selling pearls with a minimum of 12 months in the shell.
Ken Scarratt/GIA Bangkok: Excellent presentation on what constitutes treatments in cultured and natural pearls, and means by which they can be detected. As an example of the potential danger of assuming treatment where none exists, Ken offered a slide showing recent breeding improvements to the gold-lipped P. Maxima at Jewelmer, with older shells shown alongside current ones (we dined on these at Pearl-Paradise at the Ruckus last Summer!). The more recent shells were progressively bigger and deeper gold, thus explaining improvements to color that might otherwise raise eyebrows.
I missed the afternoon non-pearl sessions for GJX and other activities, returning for the Gala dinner. Strack has followed my exploits in the pearl world since our original Poe Pipi acquisitions in the Cooks and we had a good opportunity to exchange information, including of course Nautilus. Also at this most auspicious table were Douglas and Enrique from Cortez Pearls, Megan, H?ctor and his wife, and noted pearl and gem author Ren?e Newman. Yours truly, who has not had a dinner without wine for 30 years, kept the streak alive by getting a bottle for the table.
Sorry to miss all of you there this weekend. But it's a BIG, LONG FAIR!!
(Top photo: Strack and myself, featuring the public d?but of my 9mm Poe Pipi as a tie ring!
Bottom: H?ctor and Douglas enjoying the moment?)
