12.2–13.2 mm AA+/AAA Multicolor Tahitian Semi-Baroque Pearl Necklace, 33.5 inches

Tahitian tone

How we read the tone of this piece

When we buy Tahitian pearls we do not buy them by hue. We buy them by tone, meaning how light or dark the bodycolor is. A parcel is sorted along that scale first and the color names come afterward. It is the working vocabulary of the trade, and almost nobody explains it to buyers.

• LightPale silver-gray. Reads soft in daylight and wears easily.
• Medium LightSilver with the color beginning to show. Overtones read clearly against a lighter bodycolor.
• MediumThis piece. The middle of the range, and the most common. Enough depth to read as a dark pearl with the color still fully visible.
• Medium DarkNoticeably deeper. Color is still present but sits further back, and becomes more apparent in direct light.
• DarkOn the darkest pearls the bodycolor can approach black, so much of the visible color comes from the overtones across the surface.

The reason this matters is practical. Two strands can both be honestly described as green with peacock overtones and look nothing alike, because one is pale enough to read as silver in daylight and the other is nearly black. Color does not separate them. Tone does.

Darker is not better, and it does not cost more by itself. Tone tells you which piece suits you, not which is finer.

Tahitian grading

What AA+/AAA means on this strand

Our grades consider luster, shape, surface and matching together, and luster is what they turn on. For surface we describe what the piece actually looks like rather than quoting a clean percentage. At these sizes a piece will almost always carry some marking, and a number cannot tell you whether that marking matters.

• ALow to medium luster, noticeable variation from the stated shape, and marking readily visible across the piece.
• AA+Medium to high luster with some variation in shape. More marking, sometimes accepted for the beauty of the piece as a whole.
• AA+/AAAThis piece. Very high luster, closely conforming to its stated shape. Most pearls very clean, with a few carrying more. The combined grade describes variation in surface, not mixed luster or an inconsistently matched strand.
• AAAVery high luster, closely conforming to its stated shape, clean overall with any marking minor enough not to draw the eye.

Select Gem A selection that sits outside this scale rather than above it. Not a tier we sort into, but a collection built over time: exceptional natural color, shape and surface at once, with any marking slight or sitting where a setting will cover it. Collected one pearl at a time, then assembled pearl by pearl.