How Pearl Color Affects Value

For hundreds or even thousands of years, “white” was part of the definition of “pearl,” whether natural or cultured. That began to change when cultured pearls were produced in commercially significant quantities in mollusks and areas that had not traditionally been pearl sources. Colors became part of the pearl vocabulary.

A combination of consumer preference, beauty, and rarity created a hierarchy of value within each major pearl type. Those high-value colors for akoyas are silver and white. For freshwater cultured pearls, they’re white and purple. For Tahitian cultured pearls, they’re the colors known as peacock and aubergine, and for South Sea cultured pearls they’re silver and golden colors. Overtone and orient usually enhance value as well.

Some technologically sophisticated producers customize their processes to yield more high-value colors than would naturally occur. However, they avoid releasing too many of those colors into the market at the same time because they know that would undermine rarity and reduce value.

Higher value might also give trade members financial motivation to artificially create or enhance certain colors after harvesting. When other value factors are equal, natural colors are always more valuable than artificially enhanced colors. You’ll learn more about pearl treatments in Assignment 3.