Tahitian Pearls, Brown
and Golden
(These are cultivated in French Polynesia)
Brown pearls are part of the Tahitian pearl group. They are cultivated in the sea and are pearls whose nucleus has been grafted with a piece of epithelium from another mollusc belonging to the same species. The oyster that produces them is called Pinctada Margaritifera.
The cultivation process is quite similar to that of Australian pearls, so the characteristics we noted earlier for the latter also apply to Tahitian pearls.
In the first graft, the size of the pearls generally varies between 8 and 11 millimetres, in the last ones, it can reach up to 20 millimetres in diameter.
The particularity of Tahitian pearls is their wide range of natural colours (green, black, brown, violet, grey and gold) but also a magnificent lustre in most cases.
It is difficult to observe that these pearls have an opaque or lacklustre sheen as we have seen with Australian pearls. The most commercialised Tahitian pearl is the "black" pearl, which oscillates between different shades of grey, from the lightest to a deep black, but with the characteristics of a South Sea pearl.
Its beauty, unique colour and large size determine its high price.
Here are the different colours of Tahitian pearls:
Black Grey Brown Blue/Green Violet Golden Purple
(cultivated in Australia, Indonesia and Myanmar)
These pearls are also Australian pearls, the oyster that produces them is a variant of the Pinctada Maxima, called Pinctada Maxima of golden lips, the only one that creates gold pearls. The pearls are born in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In the southern seas, the waters are extremely clean and full of plankton. Its nacre layer is extraordinarily thick, from 2 to 6 millimetres.
The assessment is influenced by the same characteristics as for the others pearls.
