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.
Quality & Grading
1–22 of 22
AA Grade
Good lustre with visible but minor surface marking. The everyday-wear grade, and where most sensible value sits.
AAA Grade
The top of the standard pearl scale: sharp lustre, near-clean surface, well matched, and shape true to its type.
186 in stock · from ₹9,500
Basra Pearl
Natural pearls historically fished from the Persian Gulf. The name is now used far more often than the pearls exist.
Bleaching
A standard post-harvest treatment that evens out a pearl's colour and lightens it. Near universal in Akoya.
Body Colour
A pearl's dominant underlying colour, before any overtone is considered.
Certificate of Authenticity
A document stating what a pearl is. Useful in proportion to who issued it and what it actually tests.
Circled Pearl
A pearl with grooves or rings running around it. Traditionally a defect, now often sold as a feature.
Hanadama
A Japanese certification for the top tier of Akoya pearls, issued by an independent laboratory rather than a seller.
Lustre
How sharply a pearl reflects light. The single most important quality factor, and the one you can judge without any training.
Maeshori
The Japanese pre-treatment given to pearls after harvest to bring up lustre before they are sold.
Matching
How consistently the pearls within one piece agree on size, colour, lustre and shape. A grading factor in its own right.
Multi Shaded
A piece deliberately strung from pearls of different colours, arranged as a gradient or a scatter.
Nacre
The material a pearl is made of: microscopic aragonite platelets glued in layers by conchiolin. Thickness determines both lustre and lifespan.
Orient
The faint shifting rainbow that plays across the surface of a fine pearl, distinct from its lustre or its colour.
Overtone
A translucent secondary colour lying over a pearl's main body colour, most often rose, silver or green.
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
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
Provenance
Where a pearl or stone came from. It can multiply the price, and it is the hardest claim to verify.
Surface Blemish
Pits, bumps, creases and dull patches on a pearl's surface. Some marking is present on essentially every pearl.
Symmetry
How evenly a pearl or stone is balanced around its own axis. What separates a fine drop from a baroque one.
Twin Pearl
Two pearls fused together during growth, sharing a nacre skin.
X-Ray Testing
The only reliable way to tell a natural pearl from a cultured one, by imaging what is inside it.