Know exactly what you are buying
300 pearl and jewellery terms, each one linked to a piece you can hold.
Where would you like to begin?
Types of Pearl
Freshwater, saltwater, South Sea, keshi, and how to tell a real pearl from a coated bead.
Shapes
Round, baroque, drop, coin and the rest, and what each one is worth paying for.
Quality & Grading
What AAA actually means, plus lustre, nacre, orient and the claims to be sceptical of.
Size & Length
Millimetres, choker to rope, bangle sizing, and which length suits which neckline.
Jewellery Styles
Jhumka, mangalsutra, kundan, polki, temple work and the rest of the Indian vocabulary.
Gold & Hallmarking
Karat versus carat, 22K and 18K, 916, plating, vermeil and what a BIS hallmark proves.
Gemstones & Cuts
Ruby, emerald, sapphire and zircon, their Indian names, and the cuts from princess to cabochon.
Metals & Plating
925 silver, platinum, brass and the alloys and finishes a piece is actually built from.
Clasps & Construction
Clasps, knotting, drilling and settings, the parts that decide whether a piece survives.
Care & Authenticity
Storing pearls, the tooth test, restringing, and the astrological terms buyers ask about.
Buying & Value
Making charges, wastage, gold rate, GST, buyback and what a piece is actually worth.
Terms starting with P
1–24 of 29
Pachi
A kundan variant where stones are set into a lac-filled frame, giving a slightly raised, textured surface.
Palakka
A Kerala necklace of leaf-shaped green stone pendants set in gold. Palakka means small leaf.
Panchdhatu
An alloy of five metals, traditionally gold, silver, copper, zinc and iron, used for astrological rings.
Parcel
A quantity of loose stones sold together, folded into a paper, priced as a group rather than individually.
Passa
A fan-shaped head ornament worn at the side of the head, above the ear. Also called a jhoomar.
Paua Pearl
A rare blue-green pearl from the New Zealand paua, an abalone. Almost always a cultured half-pearl rather than a whole one.
Pave Setting
Many tiny stones set close together with minimal metal showing, so the surface reads as continuous sparkle.
Peacock
A dark pearl showing green, blue and rose flashes over a near-black body. The most prized colour effect in dark pearls.
36 in stock · from ₹400
Pear
A drop with a more pronounced shoulder, wider at the base and distinctly narrow at the top.
3 in stock · from ₹23,920
Pear Cut
A teardrop outline, round at one end and pointed at the other. The classic pendant and drop-earring shape.
Pearl Care
Pearls are soft and porous. They need to go on last, come off first, and be stored apart from everything else.
Pearl Farming
Growing pearls deliberately: nucleating molluscs, tending them in water for months or years, then harvesting.
Pearl Grading
The A to AAA scale used to rate a pearl on lustre, surface, shape, colour matching and nacre. There is no global standards body enforcing it.
91 in stock · from ₹18,000
Pearl Restoration
Lightly polishing away a damaged outer nacre layer to reveal fresh nacre beneath. Only possible on thick-nacre pearls.
Pearl Sac
The pocket of tissue that forms around an implant inside a mollusc and secretes nacre onto it.
Pearl Size
The diameter of a pearl in millimetres, measured across its widest point. Price rises steeply, not evenly, with size.
77 in stock · from ₹1,600
Pearl Watch
A wristwatch strung on rows of pearls instead of a metal or leather strap.
8 in stock · from ₹6,300
Pearls for Men
Pearl jewellery cut for men: single-strand chains, bracelets, studs and rings, usually in larger pearls and darker tones.
Peeling
Nacre lifting or flaking away from a pearl, exposing the bead beneath. Terminal, and caused by thin nacre or chemical damage.
Pendant
A single ornament hung from a chain or strand, worn as the focal point of a necklace.
35 in stock · from ₹1,200
Per Gram Pricing
Pricing a piece on what it weighs, at the day's rate for its purity, plus labour. The traditional gold model.
Pinctada
The genus of marine oysters that produces every commercially important saltwater pearl.
Platinum
A naturally white precious metal, denser and rarer than gold. Never needs plating, and does not fade.
Polki
An uncut, unfaceted natural diamond, set face-up in kundan. Glows softly rather than sparkling.
18 in stock · from ₹3,750