Unusual Pearls

The Conch Natural Pearl - Treasure from the Caribbean

A conch natural pearl is one of the rarest pearls in the world. Its creation is due to a pure chance of nature. Every year, at the most, 2000 - 3000 conch pearls are fished from the flat waters around the coasts of Florida, the Bahamas, the Yucatan and the Antilles islands. Only 15 - 20% are suitable for making jewelry.  All previous attempts at cultivating them have failed because the Strombus Gigas sea snail that produces this pearl is extremely sensitive. The complicated spiral form of the snail shell means that it is not possible to reach the pearl-forming part without endangering the life of the animal.

The Mysterious Orange Melo Pearl

Melo Melo pearls are extremely rare and come not from an oyster or mollusk but instead from the Melo Melo marine snail, which is found in the waters of the South Chine Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Like conch pearls, the Melo Melo gem is not actually a pearl because it contains no nacre. They can be extremely large and are generally very round. The colors range from tan to dark brown. Orange is the most desirable color.

Buy The Sunrise Pearl

One of the largest discovered is nearly the size of a golf ball! The pearl's colors range from tan to dark brown, with orange being the most desirable color. Also like the conch pearl, the color is believed to be subject to fading over time. 

golf ball!

I was contacted by Mr. Chen.  

I asked him "How Much?".   Below is the response I received.

In response to your question, please be advised that the Melo Pearl is the biggest and roundest natural Melo Pearl in the world and it is impossible to find another one like this.  That's because it will take several millions years to form a pearl in the Melo Melo.  The Indian Volute, (another name for the Melo) is very rare to find a pearl in. Originally, the former Yugoslavian Prince-- the vice president -- Mr. Domitri Karageorge in Sotheby suggested not to sell it by auction and he offered about USD 5 million for it at Taiwan Sotheby about 3 years ago. Then, he offered about USD 7 million after he got back to USA from Taiwan. Nevertheless, the owner still didn't accept it. Anyway, it is very possible that the owner will accept if you bid a little more. How much would you offer for the No.1 natural Melo Pearl? As a middle man, I would do my best to achieve this as soon as possible.

If you would like to buy this pearl you can contact Ray Chen   +886-910567954  or raychentw@hotmail.com

Although researchers are attempting to culture them, none have yet succeeded.  All Melo Melo pearls are natural. Although these pearls have been collected in Asia for many years, they have only recently been introduced into the West. more

An interesting story 

Did they once belong to Vietnam's royal family? Perhaps, but for Ben Zucker, a mystical "sleuth" of the gems trade, seeking the answer matters more than finding it. more

The Quahog Pearl

This lovely pearl typically occurs in unusual shades of color from purple to lilac, and
    it is created in the "quahog" clam that thrives in the Atlantic
    ocean off the shores of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

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Clam craving led to find of rare quahog pearl

The deep-purple gem, about the size of a pea, was found by a Portsmouth couple during the big snowstorm earlier this month.
A Rhode Island family found a rare purple pearl in a clam they bought from a restaurant. Barbara and Ted Krensavage and their son, Michael, discuss it with Tracy Smith.

Barbara, Ted and Michael Krensave on The Early Show Tuesday (CBS/EARLY SHOW)

 video

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Cultivating Bead-Nucleated Freshwater Pearls

This article appeared after the last Hong Kong show so we went  out to investigate.

Article

Above are bead nucleated freshwater pearls, they look just like their tissue nucleated siblings but are quite rare.

It takes six to seven years to grow a tissue nucleated 11mm Freshwater Pearl and after waiting all that time there is a 60 percent chance the pearl will not be round,

the most valuable shape. That  is why bead nucleated freshwater pearl cultivation experimentation draws such interest in the pearling community. Using a bead along with mantle tissue, as is done in all saltwater culturing process, has the prospect of reducing the time it takes to produce a large pearl by half or more. In theory  it will produce rounder pearls.

So while we were in Asia we set off to find out the current status of bead nucleated freshwater pearls. What we found was that there was some product on the market. Mainland Chinese pearl farmers did have some product (see picture above) but not in commercial quantities yet. The product we saw was loose, not in strands, most was of poor quality baroque with tails like baroque Japanese Akoya or drop shape. Some was round, nice goods. There was general consensus that no one cultivating these pearls have made a profit. The technique is still in the developmental stage. There are problems still to be overcome, such as the fact that a juvenile mussel can accept 40 tissue implants but only 3-4 beads, reducing the output by a factor of 10. The other problem seems to be that the pearls are not as round as desired. All pearl cultivators are notoriously secretive, so any information is difficult at best, but the market does not lie--there is no flood on the market now. The freshwater cultivator has proven to be as innovative as anyone in pearling and I personally would not bet against them. China is aiming at increasing pearl cultivation, improving processing techniques and expanding sales. We will watch the developments closely.      

Nucleated Freshwater Pearls

Nucleated freshwater cultured pearls that once existed in rumors were out in quantities for the world to see. They were not the round perfect spheres the pearl world expected but baroque pearls with tails.  Unusual creatures but some were quite exceptional.  more

Scallop pearls

The newest type of natural pearl available to collectors is the scallop pearl. It is found in a marine bivalve scallop that is native to the coast of Baja California, and is just beginning to be harvested. Highly variable in size and shape, they have mosaic-like patterns and cream to salmon or mauve colors with a semi-metallic to chatoyant sheen

Lion's Paw pearls are natural pearls from the scallop "Nodipecten subnodosus ". <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> They are calcareous concretions that are created by a bivalve organism whose shell resembles a lion's paw, hence their native name Mano de Leon or "hand of the lion". <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> Lion's Paw pearls are found off the coast of Baja California and until the year 2000 no one in the gem industry had ever seen a natural pearl from this scallop. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> These natural pearls that are found within the organism are mostly symmetrical. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> There are buttons, rounds, drops, and ovals and they are in sizes from seed to 40 carats. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> Some of the shapes are baroque and quite interesting. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> These pearls are byproducts of harvesting scallops in the wild and they are very rare.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->Lion's Paw pearls range in colors from white to deep royal purple with varying shades of oranges, pinks and plums. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> They are non-nacreous pearls with a mosaic pattern with a flash effect similar to the flame-like pattern on a conch (strombus gigas) and melo melo (melo amphora) pearl. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> However, unlike the conch and melo melo, which are univalves, the scallop is a bivalve filter feeder much like an oyster. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> The mosaic pattern that covers the entire surface of the pearls has a sheen-like or metallic three-dimensional effect when viewed in light.

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The Coconut Pearl

Certainly the rarest and most valuable botanical jewel is the legendary "coconut pearl" that occasionally forms inside a coconut (Cocos nucifera).

Like the pearls of oysters and giant clams, it is a shiny calcareous sphere. It is difficult to place a monetary value on a genuine coconut pearl, but the odds of finding one in a coconut are certainly less than one in a million. To put it another way, if you cracked open and thoroughly examined one coconut every 15 minutes during a normal eight hour work day, it would take roughly 80 years to go through a million coconuts!

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An Elephant Pearl? 

 It must be Big!  Yes, it is actually...

Although all mammals can have pearls form on the roots of their teeth only elephants and hippopotami tend to form loose pearls rather than mabé-like outgrowths

Being made of dentine they do not have luster or orient and, of course, they are ivory beige in color. Like tridacna pearls, they tend to have a flame-like pattern The pattern looks somewhat like wet silk. The shapes are typically plump ovals like olives or buttonish squished rounds.

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The Nine Pearls

The Nine Pearls, sometimes known as the Nava Moti (or nine gems, or "mani"), are a group of sacred gemstones described in the Vedic text known as the Garuda Purana. Enumerated as the Oyster Pearl, Conch Pearl, Cobra Pearl, Boar Pearl, Elephant Pearl, Bamboo Pearl, Whale Pearl, Fish Pearl, and Cloud Pearl, these gems were later documented in the treatise Brihat-Samhita ("The Great Compilation") of Varahamihira, the Indian mathematician. The first documented contact with these artifacts by the Western world is described in the sole volume of 18th Century scientist Albertus Seba, entitled Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. Therein, a large collection of Bezoar stones and non-oyster pearls were hand-sketched, and the collection of these items were on display in a forum which was the precursor of the modern day museum. Today, the original 446-plate volume, part of the greater work Locupletissimi Rerum Naturalium Thesauri Accurata Descriptio, is on permanent exhibit at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, Netherlands.

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