How to distinguish freshwater pearls from sea pearls. Sea pearls natural

Pearls are perhaps one of the most famous natural stones. In many cultures, it was valued for its beauty and unusual properties. The Slavs called such a stone "tears of joy." There are sea and river pearls. Each of them has features. Often on the shelves there are pearls cultivated in freshwater reservoirs.

Sometimes there is something foreign in the body of a freshwater mollusk. This is where the pearl is formed. It usually appears in the area of ​​the muscle that closes the valves, or on the upper part of the fold of the body (mantle).

Mother-of-pearl covers the inner wall of the shell. When a foreign particle enters, for example, grains of sand, insect larvae, the nerve endings of the mollusk are irritated. As a response, epithelial tissues divide, a special sac appears - a cyst. Further, the mantle highlights mother-of-pearl, which forms a pearl.

Sometimes a clot of mother-of-pearl appears without a foreign body. It is necessary that the epithelial cells are inside the mantle. This happens, for example, due to injury or pathology.

In fresh waters - lake and river - most stones are obtained from mollusks of the genera Margaritifera and Dahurinaia. First of all, these are pearl oysters: European, Daurian, Kamchatka. Pearls are also found in toothless, barley.

Freshwater pearls mature from three to twelve years. The timing depends on the type, environment, age of the mollusk. The older it is, the smaller the pearls. River mollusks produce small, irregularly shaped minerals.

In the 19th century, a lot of freshwater pearls were mined in the Russian Empire, especially in the north of the country. Now the jewelry workshops get minerals of different origin. They are mined and grown in Russia, China, Germany, Great Britain, USA. Cultivation on farms is practiced.

You can try to find the river pearl on your own. But it will take a lot of time and does not guarantee a positive result. Shells are collected from the bottom. A sign that they contain a precious mineral are violations or tubercles on the valves.

Types of river pearls

There are two types of river stone: natural and cultivated. The first is sought in the habitats of suitable mollusks. On sale, such pearls rarely come across, since it is unprofitable to mine it. Although large natural specimens, if they are of good quality, with brilliance, are the most expensive. For example, in 2008, a single freshwater pearl at Christie's sold for $713,000.

The cultivated product is obtained on special farms. The foreign body is implanted independently in promising species. The implant consists of mother-of-pearl, which speeds up the process, but in nature, pearls usually mature faster. Then the oysters are sent to the reservoir, enclosing them with nets.

The undisputed leader in the cultivation of freshwater pearls is China. The development of the direction here began in the 70s of the last century. Mussels give 15-35 pearls at a time. Just one shell of a mollusk brings 3-4 “harvests”.

Farm-grown pearls tend to be even, with a more regular shape. It is difficult to distinguish them from natural ones. The following types are distinguished by shape: circle, pear, drop, oval, button, baroque.

Mother-of-pearl stones come across more often, less often - green, gray, brownish. There are no blacks. Freshwater pearls have approximately 120 shades. The color depends on the characteristics of the alien particle, the composition of the water, the type of mollusk.

Stones come in the following sizes:

1. Pearl dust. Diameter - up to 3 mm. Often it is used to decorate expensive clothes.
2. Beads - stone up to 3-5 mm. Such specimens can be grown on farms in 1.5-2 years. They make jewelry.
3. Varietal freshwater pearls are the most expensive. It's harder to grow. Size - 5-10 mm in diameter. Better for jewelry.

Some species are sometimes confused with sea pearls. When grown on modern farms, their sizes have become comparable. Often similar colors and other signs. Differences of sea pearls:

• more round and smooth surface;
• brightness, river - more dull;
• a wide palette of colors - from white to black;
• the mother-of-pearl layer is thinner.

Natural black or bright pink river pearls are not found.

Healing and magical properties

The stone is used in medicine. Calcium carbonate in its composition normalizes the acidity of the stomach. Pearls are also used:

• to strengthen the nervous system;
• with hypertension;
• for the improvement of the kidneys, liver;
• with eye diseases.

Different peoples attributed magical properties to pearls. The Europeans expected longevity from him, the Chinese - prosperity, the Arabs - protection from the evil eye.

Pearls do not always help a person. Jewelry with them suppress the flight of thought of travelers, actors, writers. The mineral plunges into the world of dreams, sometimes gloomy. Able to break a psychologically weakened person. Lonely brings melancholy. It is undesirable for children to wear products with mother-of-pearl beads.

Param brings fidelity, peace and mutual understanding. Resists betrayal and unkind thoughts. In this case, the jewel fades.

How to distinguish genuine from fake

On sale come across products made of fake pearls. In addition, now there are technologies for growing beads without a mollusk. It is important to remember the differences:

1. Natural stones should be cool to the touch.
2. If you throw real pearls on the table, they easily bounce off the surface.
3. You can lightly rub two stones together until a powder appears. Scratches on natural pearls disappear when you run your finger over them. For a fake, mother-of-pearl may be erased, behind which there will be another material.
4. Gems are heavier.
5. Fake ones are often cheaper.
6. Fakes have traces of paint around the edges. They look unnatural: the shine of the stone is too bright, the shape is spherical, too regular.
7. Natural pearls differ from each other, artificial ones can be the same in shape, color.

Stone selection

Even good freshwater pearls have flaws: spots, dents, bumps. Quality is determined by the main characteristics: size, origin, shape, brightness, and others. Expensive copies are examined. The standards are developed by the Americans. The evaluation is based on 6-7 parameters. So, round ones are less common, so they are more expensive. River pearls are valued less than sea pearls.

When choosing jewelry, it is important to know:

1. Jewelry is considered more beautiful and of high quality, where the size of the beads gradually increases or decreases.
2. Pairing, geometry of details, general impression are important.
3. River pearls in jewelry sometimes come in different colors or are combined with other gems.
4. Sets of beads, earrings, rings are popular.
5. Flaws are better visible on a dark background with strong but diffused lighting.

Freshwater pearl jewelry is beautiful and usually inexpensive. They can be worn for a long time without loss of quality and can be inherited.

Marine pearls of natural origin, unlike cultured ones, are formed in the shell of a mollusk without human intervention. The mollusk wraps layers of nacre around a foreign body that accidentally got inside the shell.

People have learned to cultivate sea pearls relatively recently - since the beginning of the 20th century, initially placing small stones, grains of sand or beads into the shells of bivalve mollusks. Currently, balls carved from mother-of-pearl are used as implants. But for spiral shells, this technology does not work - it is impossible not to injure the mollusk, trying to put a foreign body in the area of ​​pearl formation. Due to the complex shape of the shell, many varieties of sea pearls are still not cultivated, and therefore have a very high price.

Among the rarest and most beautiful types of natural sea pearls are Conch, Melo and Abalone pearls. They are distinguished by a rich palette of colors and are quite rare, which makes these types of pearls unique and extremely valuable.

Conch pearls grow inside the shells of spiral molluscs found in the Caribbean. Even the shells themselves are extraordinarily beautiful - they have a mother-of-pearl color from pale pink to reddish. Pearls are characterized by a variety of shades - white, cream, beige, olive, brown, yellow, orange are found, but pink and red pearls are most valued, the structure of which resembles opals and silk.

Melo pearls are obtained from the shells of large mollusks, which are called Melo-Melo or Indian Volute, and are collected in the coastal waters of Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Large pearls are round in shape, most often they are yellow, reddish or brown. These are natural pearls, which, like Conch, cannot be cultivated.

Abalone is a single-valve deep-sea mollusc that has lived on the planet for at least thirty million years. Its varieties are widely distributed along the coast of North America, from California to Alaska, as well as off the coast of Japan and Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The iridescent shell of a mollusk has an extremely attractive appearance, but pearls of rare colors with an iridescent mother-of-pearl overflow are even more valued. Abalone sea pearls are varied in color, they can be purple, pink, green, purple, silver, bronze, golden, cream, or a combination of several colors. Iridescent green and blue pearls, as well as deep purple pearls, are among the rarest and most expensive.

The measure of weight for natural sea pearls is the carat. The medium-sized Conch pearl is slightly larger than a grain of rice and weighs 2-6 carats.

The cost of sea pearls depends on the size and color, its decorative qualities, and today it is approximately from 2 to 4 thousand dollars per carat. Such a price for sea pearls makes it comparable in terms of financial investment to medium-grade diamonds.

When planning to buy sea pearls of natural origin, we recommend contacting specialized companies that deal exclusively in pearls. On the selected pearls, upon purchase, a gemological certificate is mandatory, confirming its natural origin. Everyone ALWAYS comes with these papers!

Almost every one of us knows that pearls can be sea and freshwater. Sea and river pearls differ in many ways. The first can be found in an oyster, and the second can be found in a river shell. An ignorant person will not be able to distinguish these stones at first glance, since they are very similar, but looking at the price of products made from them in a jewelry store, he will immediately understand that the difference between these stones is very significant. To understand how to distinguish sea pearls from river pearls, you need to analyze the characteristics of each of the stones.

Pearl jewelry is constantly attracting women. Undoubtedly, their unique and elegant color, cool shine and beautiful shapes of beads can make any lady elegant, while giving her some charm and mystery.

In addition, natural minerals such as pearls can bring wealth and beauty to a woman, and they also have a beneficial effect on health. They can improve the functioning of the digestive system, calm the nervous system, and also allow you to identify malignant tumors. Freshwater pearl jewelry darkens if a person has cancer.

The longer the foreign body stays in the oyster, the thicker the mother-of-pearl layer is on it. As a result, after a few months or years, an elegant round stone is formed, which is called pearls.

Mother-of-pearl consists of calcium carbonate, which refracts light so that a rainbow forms on the surface. Therefore, if you do not know how to check a natural stone, do the following: take it out into the sun and twist it - the natural one will shine with a bluish and pink light.

Differences of the grown mineral

From the 13th century, they began to grow pearls. The technology of growing pearls is identical to natural. A special core is implanted into the oyster shell, which in the oyster is covered with a mother-of-pearl layer over several years. It is this layer that turns the implant into a brilliant pearl. But due to the differing features of the anatomical structure of different types of oysters and the characteristics of the water in certain places, the pearls turn out to be different from one another.

Differences between two types of minerals

To understand the differences between sea and river pearls, you need to understand the main characteristics of these stones:

• Shine.

It can be seen with the naked eye that shelf pearls have a bright mother-of-pearl luster that shimmers in the light, while in specimens from rivers, the luster, on the contrary, is dull and matte. This is due to the fact that salt water is alkaline, which affects the body of the mollusk. Fresh water is not alkaline, as it does not contain salts, so the stone looks simpler. This property allows you to quickly understand how to distinguish river pearls from sea ones.

• The form.

Perfectly round pearls do not exist in nature. Pearls from the rivers, most often, irregular shape. It is oblong and oval. Seastone, on the contrary, has a more round shape.

Therefore, jewelry made from oval or egg-shaped beads are signs of a stone from the day of the river. Such pearls cannot be spherical.

Jewelry made from sea pearls looks neater and more ideal, since all the beads are round in shape - this can be quickly determined even by eye.

• Price.

Sea pearls are much more expensive than river pearls, since the process of growing it takes more time and requires significant costs for keeping and caring for oysters. In addition, it is impossible to place more than three mother-of-pearl kernels in a sea oyster, and a shell from a river can accommodate more than ten mother-of-pearl kernels.

Another reason for the high cost of sea pearl jewelry is that they shine better, are lighter and have a uniform spherical shape, which is significantly different from river stone.

• Durability.

Freshwater pearls have increased wear resistance, so jewelry made from this stone is more suitable for everyday wear. Although the beads look paler, their mother-of-pearl layers are stronger than those of sea pearls, on which the top layer is erased during intensive use. But here it all depends on the manner of wearing jewelry and on proper care for it.

Therefore, products made from river pearls in the form of a thread are much stronger, although they have a paler mother-of-pearl. Such things are undemanding to care for, and if you inherited a pearl necklace from your grandmother that shines as if it had just been bought, then these are definitely products made from river stone. Jewelry made from sea pearls lose their radiance with prolonged use, as thin mother-of-pearl is erased, so the beads in worn places will be matte - this is their clear difference.

• Color.

It may seem that all the pearls are of a noble color, but in reality they are not. Sea pearls often have unique, monophonic and rather saturated tones, which is not the case with river stone, which is almost never bright.

They have a uniform coloring, unlike river pearls. In addition, river stone cannot be black or bright pink, and shelf stone cannot be bluish and greenish. This also distinguishes river pearls from sea pearls.

Therefore, we can conclude that the river pearl cannot be represented by a wide variety of shades, unlike the sea stone.

Shelf specimens have a uniform whiteness without any color flaw, and river pearls have small gray or yellow spots.

conclusions

Now you know the difference between river pearls and sea pearls. Given all these nuances, you can quickly determine the type of stones. It is impossible to understand their origin from a photograph, since most often the pictures are processed on a computer using special software. It is necessary to purchase pearl jewelry in trusted jewelry stores, where you can appreciate the stone with a glance, touch it, consider the texture of mother-of-pearl.

sea ​​pearl Akoya

The choice of pearls is a pleasant process, but not an easy one.
Even after reading about the types of pearls, you can still get a box full of low-grade pearls, well, a lot of experience.
We have already considered natural and cultured - both types of pearls are natural.
Further, natural pearls are divided into river (freshwater) and Akoya sea (salt water, sea water), according to the habitat of the mollusk. Saltwater pearls are considered more brilliant, but also more expensive, since the conditions for their cultivation are more difficult, and the output is less quality pearls.
For freshwater pearls, a large mollusk is used, in which dozens of "seeds" can be placed and up to 30 pearls can be obtained. Therefore, it is much cheaper. Such pearls grow faster. In fresh water, there is no storm that can bring colder layers of water to the coast, where pearl clams grow on farms.

With the same quality of a pearl (size, luster, surface smoothness), a sea pearl will cost you much more than a freshwater one.
A solid “seed” is placed in sea pearls, and a piece of mollusk mantle is placed in freshwater pearls, it begins to be enveloped in layers of mother-of-pearl, in the process it dissolves and a whole pearl is obtained, completely from mother-of-pearl.

If you take two necklaces for comparison (sea and freshwater), let's say the price is $ 100 per thread (the cost is also approximate, depending on where to buy), you will get an excellent freshwater necklace, 7 mm in diameter, with almost selected pearls, the shape of the pearls is close to the circle. The necklace looks beautiful and expensive. At the same price, saltwater pearls will either have significant pearl flaws, visible growths, a baroque “spouted” shape that makes the pearls look teardrop-shaped, or a very thin layer of mother-of-pearl,

aged for no more than six months in a pearl oyster with a seed core with a mother-of-pearl layer thickness of up to 0.5 cm. The brilliance will be better, but you will need to be very careful when wearing such a necklace, if not handled properly in a year, the mother-of-pearl can fall behind and peel off, exposing the surface of the core, the necklace will be lost.
It can be imagined that the price-quality ratio in freshwater pearls is better.


Photos are the best way to help you understand and make up your mind. The title photo shows baroque Akoya sea pearls, the photo in the text - earrings and pendant - round Akoya sea pearls, the most recent photo is a necklace made of excellent quality freshwater pearls.
Look, decide, the final choice is always yours!

Anna Kushkova

Comments

1. Lena
   08.02.2012 @ 19:30

   I haven’t received such pleasure from reading for a long time. Even my husband listened with great attention. Through the text, you can feel Anna’s love for pearls. And Sergey, as a kind and strict teacher, dotted the “I”. THANK YOU.

2. Sergey
   20.11.2011 @ 10:18

   Anna, sometimes, river sea pearls can be distinguished even from a photograph. And your example is just such a case. Both of your strands are river pearls. I explain:
   Growing even, round freshwater pearls is next to impossible due to the "nuclear free" method you describe. Mother-of-pearl grows on an initially uneven base - a piece of the mantle (meat) of the donor mollusk. A uniform rounded (precisely rounded, not round) shape is achieved by rejection. Naturally, no one throws uneven pearls away, they simply move into other categories of commercial forms of pearls. These are forms: rice, baroque, potato, drop, button, etc. Of these, they later make magnificent decorations. In some cases, a pearl that has reached a certain size undergoes an additional alignment procedure. She is again wrapped in a thin layer of mantle and re-placed in a mollusk to continue growth. Pearls of non-commercial form (having very strong defects or simply terrible as death) are used in crushed form in cosmetics and medicines.
   Sea pearls are obtained precisely by the “nuclear” method. And this very nucleolus is a ball, regardless of the material of which it consists, it is always even, round in shape. The ball can be plastic, glass or made from shell mother-of-pearl. Cheap pearls in Asia use a plastic ball. The thickness of the mother-of-pearl layer can be incredibly small - a tenth of a millimeter. Therefore, the ball is used white or, in the worst case, transparent with a matte surface, otherwise it will be visible through a thin layer of mother-of-pearl. When using transparent plastic, these pearls even partially transmit light. Such pearls cost a couple of hundred rubles per thread, and with careless handling, mother-of-pearl peels off it faster than nail polish. Nevertheless, this is a real sea pearl! The main thing is that even such pearls have a round shape without dents, flattening and barrel-shaped.
   When growing higher quality saltwater pearls, a thicker layer of mother-of-pearl is achieved over a longer period, but even with the appearance of growths, the initial round shape of the pearl does not change. The build-up does not "spread" over the surface of the pearl, changing its shape, but continues to grow in the direction from the center of the pearl. As a result, you get a round pearl with growths sticking out of it. Jewelry made from such pearls is valued for its originality, but is much cheaper than pearls with a smooth, defect-free surface.
   So, we can say with almost one hundred percent certainty that uneven - elongated, barrel-shaped, and in general any rounded shape (as in your photo) pearls are freshwater pearls obtained by a "nuclear-free" method. No matter what the seller says!

   • Anna
     22.11.2011 @ 15:43

Pearls can be sea and river. Both of these species are beautiful in their own way, but differ significantly in cost. They can be easily identified independently by some characteristic features and properties. River pearls are similar to sea pearls in appearance and according to the principle of formation. Both of them are often used in the creation of jewelry and jewelry. It is important to understand how to distinguish sea pearls from river ones.

pearl mining

Pearls, according to the modern classification approved by the International Mineralogical Society, are not included in the class of minerals, but despite this, such a stone is used quite widely among jewelers. Pearls can be obtained naturally, as well as cultivated, and each such type is divided depending on the method of cultivation and place of origin into river or sea.

Freshwater pearls come from lake oysters. They live mainly in clean rivers with a low rate of water flow. The size of river mollusks can reach up to 18 cm in diameter, weight - up to 300 g, and their age - up to 50 years.

Mollusks that are found in river water belong to the Unionidae family. The most famous representative of this group in European countries is margaritifera, which is valued by producers. Beautiful buttons are made from its shells. Experts say that mollusks quickly adapt to changes in physical, biological and climatic conditions. They are long-lived, in natural conditions, some individuals can live for about 250 years.

Unlike freshwater pearls, marine pearls do not have nuclei, they are grown in a nuclear-free way. In this case, specialists place a piece of foreign tissue in the mantle of the mollusk, which quickly begins to be enveloped in layers of mother-of-pearl. This method is considered nuclear-free, since a special artificial ball-nucleus is added to pearls for this. It is for this reason that the lake stone has a thicker layer of mother-of-pearl, unlike the sea stone.

Natural pearls are now very rare, and their value is very high. For example, necklaces made of natural pearls in the composition were sold at Christie's auction in 2008 for 1.7 million. At the same event, a string of river jewelry went for 1.4 million.

Criteria affecting the assessment

Cultured and natural gems are judged according to the same criteria. All over the world, the assessment is carried out according to the main system, which was created by the Gemological Institute of America.

Main indicators:

There are four main types of human-produced pearls on the jewelry market. Three types are grown in sea water, and one in fresh water.

• Akoya (marine type);
• Black Tahitian (marine);
• Freshwater Chinese (the second name is Chinese non-nuclear);
• Pearls of the South Seas.

Differences in origin

Before buying pearl products, it is important to determine the difference between river and sea pearls. These include:

Counterfeit detection

Some self-serving manufacturers create fake pearls that can be easily distinguished from natural ones. There are several methods that will help you quickly identify a fake stone:

If you follow the assessment of pearls, then the quality is evaluated according to seven main criteria, which will depend on the characteristics of the jewelry.

In the event that a bracelet, ring or pendant with several pearls is considered, then the quality indicator is evaluated on six points. If a whole string of pearls or a necklace is taken, then the seventh parameter appears, which is called selection. It is used only if several pearls are drilled and put on one common thread.