Field Segment: Pearls
HOST: Now it's time for a Roadshow pop quiz. What is the only precious gem that is made by a living organism? Well, if you guessed a pearl, you're right. Pearls form slowly inside bivalves, mostly oysters or mussels, and have been prized by people for thousands of years all over the world. What better place to talk about pearls than at an Atlantic City landmark, Dock's Oyster House, the third oldest oyster house in the country. While the staff prepare for the dinner rush, Kevin Zavian and I got down to the nitty-gritty of pearls. Well, Kevin, I don't think I'm going to find a valuable pearl in the oysters I'm going to order here at the oyster house later. Is that right?
APPRAISER:
No, you're right. I mean, you may find one, but it's not going to be of the quality that these are.
HOST: So, edible oysters don't give us those priceless pearls.
APPRAISER:
No.
HOST: There's so much to learn, but we thought we'd hit some of the most important facts. So first, let's start with how is a pearl made in nature.
APPRAISER:
What happens is a parasite or irritant gets into the mollusk. He can't expel it, so he starts to grow layers of nacre around the irritant, and eventually that becomes a pearl. It kind of grows like skin on an onion.
HOST: So then what's the difference between a natural pearl and a cultured pearl?
APPRAISER:
Well, man has helped cultured pearls along. Man has taken a bead made from the Mississippi pig-toe mussel. They insert it surgically into a mollusk, and they put a tiny piece of soft-mantle tissue in with it. And now, the cultured pearl starts to form with the nacre again. And this necklace here, these are natural pearls.
HOST: I now understand how these are so valuable, when you can get enough to make a beautiful necklace like this.
APPRAISER:
And what you're saying is right. You just don't pull the first 50 pearls out of the mollusk and "Oh, we got a necklace." This could take years to make a layout and get it right, get the colors to match. But this one graduates from about four millimeters to a nice size of ten millimeters in the front. Hence, a necklace like this could be worth $10,000.
HOST: That's really beautiful. And you've got an example of a cultured pearl necklace over here as well, let's take a look at that.
APPRAISER:
It's a triple strand. Again, they're graduated. They have beautiful luster and a nice nacre finish. So, a necklace like this today would retail for around $20,000.
HOST: And those are cultured pearls.
APPRAISER:
Those are cultured pearls.
HOST: But the one in the middle, now that's special.
APPRAISER:
That's fit for a queen. Most likely formed in the Persian Gulf. You see it has this beautifully elongated shape. It's so simple, but so elegant.
HOST: This is a natural pearl?
APPRAISER:
This is a natural pearl, yeah. I don't think you really have to say much about it. It is really beautiful.
HOST: What is the value of a pearl like this?
APPRAISER:
A pearl like this could be worth upwards of $100,000. It's amazing. Natural pearls have always been so valuable that in 1917 Pierre Cartier traded a double strand of natural pearls for their current location at 52nd and 5th Avenue.
HOST: Now I'm understanding how valuable natural pearls are, so I'm wondering how do we figure out if a pearl is natural or cultured?
APPRAISER:
Well, the best way is to have it X-rayed by a gem lab. And today, with the way things are, almost every strand of pearls that are being retailed as natural come with the certificate stating that. I
HOST: know we've only scratched the pearly surface of information here, but Kevin, thank you very much. It's been very informative, and really beautiful examples.
APPRAISER:
You're welcome.
Appraisal Details
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Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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