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Pearl Education:
Pearls are the only gems that are produced by living animals. Because cultured pearls are organic gemstones, no two pearls are exactly alike. While diamonds and other gems must be cut and polished to achieve their brilliance, pearls are simply harvested and checked for quality.
There are six key factors used to determine the quality and value of cultured pearls.
The most important factor is luster which is the sharpness and intensity of reflections on the pearl’s surface, and orient is the iridescent colors which can be seen within the pearl. The higher the luster and orient, the more valuable the pearl. The luster of a pearl has b been described by some as the interplay between a reflective sheen on the surface of a pearl combined with an intriguing glow that seems to emanate from within the pearl.  For most people, luster is not difficult to evaluate with the naked eye. Pearls with high luster have the ability to reflect the light around them. Pearl with low luster often look dull and chalky.
A Pearl's luster will be dependent on the quality of care given to the oyster in its early growing stages, as well as its incubation period - typically three to five years. The better the pearl producer cares for the health of his mollusks, the higher the pearl quality produced by those mollusks.
Shape is one of the principle factors in determining pearl quality. In general, spherical pearls are the most prized. However, it is common to find small imperfections of shape which can occasionally be desirable as long as they are symmetrical. For example, teardrop shaped pearls are often used in earrings and pendants. Usually, however, all things being equal, the rounder the pearl the more valuable. Round pearls are the most recognizable shape.
A round pearl is perfectly symmetrical and should roll in a straight line along a slightly angled surface. Only a small percentage of total pearl production will yield perfectly round pearls. This is because the eventual shape of the pearl is determined by a number of highly variable factors which occur inside the oyster, as the pearl is developing.
As the pearl develops it will tend to assume the same shape as its "nucleus" which is typically round. The nucleus is the irritant which was placed inside the oyster to initiate the formation of the pearl. If the nucleus is not perfectly round, the resulting pearl is likely to reflect, and amplify its irregularity. Additionally, the pearl's positioning within the oyster's body also plays a role in determining its shape. If the pearl develops against the shell wall it will tend to become flattened on that side.
Cleanliness is a term used to describe how many imperfections are found on the surface of a pearl.Some imperfections are expected on the majority of pearls, but the fewer and less noticeable they are the better. Small blemishes on pearls are somewhat inevitable; however, serious surface damage, imperfection, or intrusion such as a crack or chip in the nacre should be cause for concern as these conditions will affect the durability of the pearl, as well as the value. When evaluating pearls, look at each pearl individually to judge its surface quality, as they are all different.
The next factor is the pearl size. Generally speaking, the larger the size of the pearl, the greater its value. Large pearls not only require larger oysters to produce them, but they require much more time to develop inside the oyster, depending on the size of the nucleus. An average-sized pearl can take 2 to 3 years to develop. Significantly larger pearls can take twice as long to grow. Additionally, it is very difficult to maintain a perfectly spherical shape while the pearl develops. This is why very large round pearls are extremely rare and valuable. A pearl's size is measured by its diameter in millimeters. The most common size range for pearls is from 7 to 7.5-millimeters in diameter. Pearls that are in strands are rarely uniform in size. Usually they will always have a .5mm differential within an individual strand according to international standards.
Color describes both the main color (usually white, black, or yellow) and the undertone (often pink, rose, or even green). In addition, pearls can be dyed any shade to meet personal preferences.
The pearl's body color is its main color classification which is determined by the type of oyster or mollusk that produces the pearl. Certain types of oysters produce pearls within a specific color range (body color). Other factors in pearl coloration include the conditions of the water (temperature, water quality, salinity, etc.) and the type of nucleus which is implanted to stimulate the pearl's creation.
Color selection or preference can be a matter of personal taste and is often decided on the basis of whether the pearl color suits the wearer's skin.
The final factor used to evaluate pearl quality is matching. How well the pearls are matched will affect the quality of pearl jewelry, such as necklaces or earrings. The pearls should be basically the same size, color, shape, and luster. The rule of thumb is that the more well-matched pearls there are in a piece of jewelry, the higher the cost. That’s why pearl earrings cost more than two individual pearls.

History of the Pearls
Throughout the greater part of known history, a fine natural pearl necklace has been considered among the most desired and priceless jewelry. Their values were higher than any other piece of jewelry in the world. Pearls have come a long way but are still the prized possessions that they were hundreds of years ago. …
Pearls, also known as the Queen of gems, have only been cultured since the early 1900s. Before that time, people relied solely on the collection of natural pearls. As natural pearls are extremely rare, they were considered so prohibitively expensive that they were almost exclusively kept for the highest nobles, royalty, and the extremely wealthy.
At the peak of the Roman Empire, when the fad for pearls reached its height, Suetonius the historian wrote of the fact that the Roman general Vitellius sold one of his mother’s pearl earrings and was able to use the money to finance an entire military campaign.
No one actually knows who the first people were to collect or wear pearls. Some believe that it must have been an ancient fish-eating tribe, likely somewhere along the coast India, who may have discovered pearls while opening their oysters for food. No matter their actual origin as jewelry or decoration, the respect and wonder over pearls has spread worldwide throughout the millennia that followed.
Of course, pearls don’t occur just anywhere, and the locations in which pearls form dictates the type of pearl that will come to be.
Historically, the main beds of pearl-producing oysters lay in the Persian Gulf, along India’s coast, and what is now Sri Lanka, as well as in the Red Sea. Pearls also occurred in China in freshwater rivers and ponds. Japan had some pearls which occurred in salt water near the coast. These locations were the source of almost every pearl to be found before pearls were cultured.
Over the next few thousand years, only three events occurred to truly impact what seemed to be an exclusive source for pearls. Two of these occurred after Columbus opened up a whole new world of pearl discovery to Europe.
Spain forced slaves to dive for pearls along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Central America. England worked North America’s Atlantic coast, and France searched the North and the West. They both soon discovered that Natives were wearing pearls, and concentrated on their discoveries of freshwater pearls in Mississippi, Ohio, and the Tennessee River basins. However, over-fishing in Central and North American waters soon depleted the beds. Furthermore, what over-fishing didn’t impact, the high levels of industrialization’s pollution took care of.

Pearl Origins:
For most of the history of the pearl, natural pearls were relied upon for their collection. This was a risky, expensive, and difficult process that produced very few results. Pearls were extremely rare, and extremely valuable. It wasn’t until the Japanese discovered how to nucleate mollusks to produce cultured pearls, that pearls became available to people other than the very wealthy.
Kokichi Mikimoto, the son of a noodle maker, worked with his dedicated wife Ume to develop a strategy that enticed oysters to produce pearls on demand. It was this discovery that brought about the beginning of oyster farming and cultured pearls. Of course, they didn’t know that government biologist Tokichi Nishikawa, and carpenter Tatsuhei Mise had also each discovered the cause of pearl formation.
With all of these discoveries, and Mise’s patent in 1907 for a grafting needle, cultured pearls became quite an important and competitive science. They didn’t even know about each other’s efforts until Nishikawa applied for a nucleating patent and found out that Mise had discovered the exact same thing. They united for their common goal, creating the Mise-Nishikawa method, which is still the essence of cultured pearls today. Mikimoto took this a step further by altering the Mise-Nishikawa method, with his own, and creating a technique to culture round pearls. This patent was granted in 1916. From there, Mikimoto took off, shadowing the works of the others.
It was from here that specific types of cultured pearls were able to appear.
For example, Mikimoto’s efforts were directly responsible for the development of the Akoya pearl.
South Sea pearls on the other hand, are those cultivated in the waters off the coasts of Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Japan, and Thailand. They had been cultivated naturally for thousands of years, when the Australian people believed that pearls held supernatural powers, and used them specifically for activities such as dream interpretation. In the 16th and 17th centuries when the European explorers arrived, they brought the global demand for South Sea pearls. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the South Sea pearl producing oysters were brought to the brink of extinction. Culturing pearls saved these oysters, and brought South Sea pearls to the level of 10% of the entire pearl market.
Tahitian pearls were originally believed to be of the god Oro who used rainbows to visit earth. This was what the Tahitians believed gave the pearls their unique coloring. When the French arrived, the pearls were cultivated not from Tahiti precisely, but everywhere else throughout the French Polynesian waters. By the 1700s, there were so many traders and explorers that the pearl-producing mollusks quickly became depleted. By 1880, France was forced to take strict action, placing severe regulations on the fishing off these islands. It wasn’t until the Japanese began the process of nucleation that Tahitian pearls could once again be enjoyed.
If one thing is for certain, pearls will be a beauty prized by people of all places and levels, for the rest of time.

Pearl Grading:
Price and quality are not as simple as shape or size, or even color.
In actuality, there are 7 major factors to grading a pearl for quality and price. In addition, different types of pearls have different grading systems that should also be considered.
The 7 most important elements to grading a pearl are: