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A pearl is a hard, rounded object produced by certain animals, primarily mollusks such as oysters. Pearls can be used in jewellery and also crushed in cosmetics or paint formulations. Pearl is valued as a gemstone and is cultivated or harvested for jewellery.

There are two types of pearls, one is natural or true pearl and other is cultured pearl. Natural pearl is formed without any human intervention at all and these are very rare. Cultured pearl is one that has been formed on a pearl farm with human aid. Pearls are generally white or cream, but the colour of pearl can vary according to the colour of nacre in the various species of mollusk used. Pearls can be black, dyed yellow, green, blue, brown, pink and purple.

Value and Use of Pearls in Jewellery

The value of the pearls is determined by a combination of the luster, colour, size, lack of surface flaw and symmetry. Natural pearls are very rare jewels, thus very much costly. The valuation factors include size, shape, surface quality, orientation, and luster. Luster is the most important factor of pearl quality.

Pearls come in different shapes. They can be round, semi-round, button, drop, pear, oval, baroque, and circled. Perfectly round pearls are the rarest and most valuable shape. Semi-rounds and button pearls are used in necklaces. Popular use of button pearls is in single pendants or earrings. Drop and pear shaped pearls are referred as teardrop pearls and are used in earrings, pendants, or as a center pearl in necklaces.

Grading and Quality

Unlike diamonds there is no universally accepted standard for grading pearls. There are, however, universally recognized grading criteria. Pearls are unique among gemstones because they are natural, organic products of living creatures, so they have different grading standards. Six factors determine the quality, value, and beauty of pearls: nacre, luster, surface, shape, colour and size.

Care of Pearls

Pearls are organic substance made of calcium carbonate. It’s very important to care for your pearls. They can be damaged by cosmetics, perfumes, hair spray, or any chemicals, even natural acids contains in body oil or sweat can damage lustre of pearls. So, you should put your pearl jewellery at least 30 minutes after applying such cosmetics containing chemicals. Wipe the pearls with a soft cloth after you wear them, which ensure they remain free of any harmful effects of chemical compounds. Keep your pearls separated from hard jewellery to prevent scratches. Keep them is soft cloth pouch or in specially designed jewellery boxes. One most important thing, never forget to restring your pearl jewellery once in a year.

Diamond necklaces, like other jewelry of the Georgia period, were handmade. These design period in jewelry occurred at the same time as the reign of the four English kings who gave their name to the period, namely about 1714 through 1830.

Diamond necklaces from this period reflected the desire to experiment with new designs, new metals, and new ways of cutting the diamonds. At the onset of the Georgian period, diamonds were the gemstone of choice, so diamond necklaces were very popular. The demand for diamond lookalikes was so strong that a whole industry grew up using paste, rock crystal, cut steel,and marcasite (iron pyrite) as substitutes for the real thing. Even royalty was not adverse to wearing the fakes, since they were so well done.

Diamond necklaces from the early Georgian period often used large stones set in an elaborate rococo style. This placed emphasis on shell like curves, the same as found in many of the buildings created in the style. Elsewhere it was also called Baroque, or even the French style. The main characteristics are the size, the arcs and curves, and further, asymmetric designs.

As Georgian period progressed, diamond necklaces moved from rococo to Gothic revival and on to neoclassical in architecture as well in jewelry. Not many pieces are found today in Georgian style. Knowledge of the appearance mostly is from portraits commissioned during the times.

A fairly consistent giveaway in detecting Georgian era diamond necklaces is often the way in which the diamonds are mounted. Today, diamonds are often set in open work but Georgian gems typically were set over silver or gold foil and the backs of the diamonds were enclosed in metal in the same way in which rhinestones typically are mounted today. In fact, foil backing in today's jewelry pieces nearly always indicates that the stone is fake.

Other common features of Georgian diamond necklaces included gold work that was flat and low, diamonds that were backed with foil, and bezel mounting. Often enameling of black and white or cobalt blue was used. Charles Pinchbeck, an English watchmaker created a zinc and copper alloy which was used as a substitute for gold.

During the years of the Georgian period, diamond cutters set their skills to producing exciting new gem cuts which were displayed in the diamond necklaces created by the artisans. The brilliant cuts, cushion cut and rose cut all found favor with the public.