Kokichi Mikimoto is the founder of cultured pearls and his company also has the patent for it. Cultured pearls brought revolution in the pearl industry, when natural pearls weren’t able to meet the market’s demand. Now there are various types of pearls displayed in every jewellery store.
Out of 100 pearls only 3 or 5 pearls are stamped with ‘M’ which means they are of extreme quality standard, matched to other pearls. According to the Mikimoto trend, it is better to burn all low-quality pearls than floating them in the market. Mikimoto pearls are extra lustrous and have good reflection surface just like a mirror. Even Mikimoto pearls are classified in four levels, depending upon is lustre and reflection. The highest graded pearl which falls in AAA1 is highly expensive compared to AAA4 level pearl. However, it is enough to know that a person has Mikimoto pearl necklaces, rings, earrings or bangles.
It wasn’t easy for Mikimoto to enter the market, because he had angered many businessmen. Natural pearls were sold for thousands of dollars while cultured pearls were less in price which affected their business. However, cultured pearls have also saved many oysters form getting extinct. Nowadays, Mikimoto don’t have their personal farms, but they do business with other pearl farmers. Still they will not accept poor quality pearls and stamp it with their brand name.
As we said earlier Mikimoto has its own standards. Here are five factors that assesses quality –
- Lustre of any pearl depends upon its nacre quality. Lustre can be detected by the reflection from surface and inner light that is reflected.
- Slight ridges and less smoothness identify true pearl. These blemishes appear when oyster brushes against it, therefore if you get a pearl that has a very smooth surface, then surely it is fake.
- Any shape is difficult to determine while a pearl is within a shell. However, round shape is expensive other than that there is oval, teardrop, baroque and button shaped as well.
- A real pearl will never have uniform shade, they are generally dyed. Although there are different shades available as per the oyster’s availability, but pearls which have an overtone reflects when light falls on it are real pearls.
- Bigger the size, valuable is the pearl. Size decides the number of nacre layers on it which also says that it will be more lustrous.
When we have to copy a paper, we say Xerox, because it is the oldest machine and a standard name given to the process. Similarly, Mikimoto brand is enough to depict the pearl’s quality.