are cultured pearls considered real pearls and can they also be pricecy?
Virtually (99.9%+) all saltwater pearls on the market are culture pearls. The Fancy Mikimoto pearls are cultured pearls. Natural saltwater pearls are extremely uncommon I would be amazed if you have seen some outside of a museum or some situation like that.
Yes, cultured pearls are real pearls, just like milk from cows that are bred on a dairy farm to give milk is real milk. They grow in oysters, it’s just that the oysters are farmed and seeded to ensure that they produce pearls (sometimes pearls of a specific shape, size or color).
Cultured pearls are graded, and the highest grades can be very expensive.
Most pearls you see in jewelry stores today are freshwater pearls. Sorta like farm raised catfish.
Mikimoto pearls are still quite saleable. They’re about the only ones.
I own a small handful of natural saltwater pearls. My father worked in the industry. I’ve had a few set, and the jewelers I worked with did not seem particularly surprised or impressed by them.
As your question has already been answered, I’ll add that perfect round pearls are either very expensive cultured pearls, or, much more likely, fake ones. (Fake = a glass bead with a small layer of factory added pearl paint)
As a result, there is much more interest these days in wild shape (“baroque”) pearls, as these are not yet often imitated.
IN general, perals can be expensive in a jewellers store, but they can be had MUCH cheaper through Ebay, especially from the far East. I get the impresson that jwellers ere are still counting on clients having the impression that Pearls = expensive when that is not true anymore.
Both fake and natural (wild or cultured) pearls can be colored with paint nowadays, so they come in all sorts of colours.