Christmas is coming, and I am asking Santa for a pair of pearl earrings. I’m hoping to invest in a very nice pair, with the assumption that I won’t be buying many pairs of pearl earrings in my lifetime.
Any advice on what to look for? Reputable retailers? What price range can I expect?
Thank you!
I can’t tell you much, but I know something of this company: Paspaley Pearls. They are based in northern Australia, and sell beautiful South Sea pearls. The smallest pair of Keshi studs they sell is around AUD$800.
Were you thinking of studs or drop earrings? Any ideas as to setting or shape? These (obviously) will affect the price.
My best and only advice is buy in a real store, so that you can see the particular pair of earrings you are buying. Even in pearls that are supposedly graded the same, there can be vast differences–and flaws. Also, seeing them in person is the only way to tell whether paying for the next grade up is worth the cost or not.
ETA: unlike with stones, the quality of a pearl really is about what’s apparent to the eye. That’s what I’m trying to say. The difference between a $400 strand and a $4000 strand, for example, is obvious.
Looking at studs- something simple and business like. I’m thinking 7.5-8 mm? Does that sound right?
I was thinking around 8 mm was pretty standard. Not really knowing anything about pearls, my default would be to go to Tiffany and look at something like this or this, depending on your budget and type of pearl you want. They have many sizes and a decent price range if you look at their whole pearl collection.
Mine are 10mm, and they don’t feel too big at all.
Thanks! Good replies so far. One reason why I don’t want to get too crazy big is that there may be a necklace involved at some point later, and I definitely can’t afford a large, high quality necklace. I’m also not too worried about a prestigious brand, as long as the stone (is a pearl a stone?) is good.
Practical advice-- Purchase a pair of Mikimoto off of eBay. You’ll get them at a fraction of the original price and, if you ever need to resell them, Mikimoto will resell better than any brand you can buy. A used pair won’t be used very much, not like a used ring which can be abused.
It depends a bit on how visible you want them to be and how big your head is, but that’s a good starting point. I’d go to a jewelry store and hold up a few different sizes against your ear before you make a firm decision. You might find that you want to go a touch bigger, or maybe even a touch smaller, depending on how they look against your particular ears.
Start by deciding whether you want natural or grown, and what color. White is the default assumption, but they also come in pink, light pink, grey and black.
They’re not stones in the sense of rocks, they grown inside oysters. Something gets inside the oyster’s shell in a place where it won’t go out, and it gets covered in the same substance that forms the inside of the oyster’s own shell (nacre). Nacre on the shell itself is also sometimes called mother-of-pearl, and not every shellfish with nacre shells makes pearls. The way “artificial” pearls are grown is by having a shellfish farm and putting bits inside them, “seeding” the shells. You may find this webpage interesting.
And if later you upgrade to a trio, the necklace doesn’t have to match exactly. Other popular options are a necklace with a size scale, or which mixes several colors.
My understanding is that cultured pearls are VASTLY more common than natural pearls, and therefore vastly more affordable. As far as I know, there is, otherwise, no difference in quality.
In 1993, I purchased a pearl necklace for myself, as well as several less-expensive ones for my nieces. Being able to see them in person was a huge help. I happened to be on a project in New York City at the time and went to a jeweler in the diamond district.
You can often see the quality difference even with an untrained eye - better quality pearls will have a thicker nacre and just look richer - imagine pouring whole milk into a glass and nonfat milk into a glass right next to it. At a casual glance they might look the same but when you really look at the two, you can see the whole milk looks richer.
Color is also a concern. Most “white” pearls have a slight tendency to being yellowish. I don’t mean they look yellow, but looking at a sheet of pure white paper next to them, they’ll be more cream-colored. The set I purchased for myself is white as well buit has slightly pinker undertones. While this isn’t likely to be an issue with earrings, if one were especially fussy one might want to choose a necklace based on which color family you tend to wear more.
There’s also something called a mabepearl - which is made slightly differently, by inserting a shaped hemispherical nucleus (other shapes are used as well). These are great for pins and earrings.
Also consider the setting - stud, french hook or whatever. I have a pair of plain pearl studs which have standard nut-type backs and they’ve gotten lost a time or two (interestingly I’ve always found them, once in my bra). I inherited a pair of clip-style pearl earrings from my mother, and had them converted for pierced ears, so I asked the jeweler to use a screw-back post - and found that the post was too irritating to insert so I never wear them. Some of the larger earrings may come with a post AND clip - a.ka. an omega back; I have two pairs of gold earrings like this. I seem to recall the mabe pearl earrings I was looking at tended to have those.
How would you know if they’re authentic?
I’ve not seen knockoffs so far. Buy from a seller with 99+% feedback. Usually come with original box and tag.
Pearls are near the bottom of the specific gravity scale of standard gems, at ~2.65, so larger ones won’t feel to heavy. For comparison, the SG of a ruby or sapphire is 4.0, and of diamond ~3.65.
Other than that, I would urge you to contact the Gemological Institute Of America, who can probably give you some pointers. IIRC Mikimoto invented the culturing process, and their pearls are VERY expensive, judging by ads I used to see in the New Yorker. There’s a huge range of cultured pearl quality/price. The basic procedure is to insert a “seed”, usually a tiny bead of nacre, into the oyster which then forms a cyst around it, aka a pearl. Cultured pearls of better quality are started with smaller seeds and hence require more time to grow. Many, many years ago I bought a souvenir pearl at Sea World for a couple of bucks; it was nothing more than a very thin layer of nacre over a large bead almost the size of a pearl. Technically it was a cultured pearl, but indeed a very poor one.