Fruition: 9.5-10mm "top quality" white akoya from Takahashi

[icy_jade]

I'm laughing at icy's comment. I've never seen a natural pearl I actually liked either. Even in museums. They're always misshapen and lackluster. Break out the tiny violin I know

To me a cultured pearl genuinely isn't "lesser" or "less real" than a natural peal. I genuinely don't consider keshi to be "better" or "more real"... So I guess that makes me walking proof of Mikimoto accomplishing the unbelievable and successfully altering market perception within a single lifetime

Naturals and from what I remember very expensive:

More...

 

[love_pearls]

I'm laughing at icy's comment. I've never seen a natural pearl I actually liked either. Even in museums. They're always misshapen and lackluster. Break out the tiny violin I know

To me a cultured pearl genuinely isn't "lesser" or "less real" than a natural peal. I genuinely don't consider keshi to be "better" or "more real"... So I guess that makes me walking proof of Mikimoto accomplishing the unbelievable and successfully altering market perception within a single lifetime

I kept seeing the word natural pop up in the previous comment so I brought up the question of natural pearls. Natural pearls to me are associated with slavery, emperorism as in those days, diving into the sea is a dangerous business so normally slaves or prisoners were sent to the ocean to get pearls thus natural pearls are not priced for its natural beauty but as a recognition of power for the emperors.

Luckily slavery is heavily criticized nowadays so in comes the cultured pearls which should be celebrated. But human trafficking is still a real issue sadly.

 

[yssie]

Naturals and from what I remember very expensive:

...And by "wow" I mean "yikes"...

I kept seeing the word natural pop up in the previous comment so I brought up the question of natural pearls. Natural pearls to me are associated with slavery, emperorism as in those days, diving into the sea is a dangerous business so normally slaves or prisoners were sent to the ocean to get pearls thus natural pearls are not priced for its natural beauty but as a recognition of power for the emperors.

Luckily slavery is heavily criticized nowadays so in comes the cultured pearls which should be celebrated. But human trafficking is still a real issue sadly.

Hmm. I don't know the etymology of the term "natural white". Great question and I'd love to learn the answer.

And you're right, it does seem that there should be a hypen or something to clarify. [Natural-white] [akoya/pearls], not [natural] [white-akoya/white-pearls].

 

[pearaffair]

Going to drop a few more photos into this thread - these are the photos of all three pairs of 9.5-10 that Yy originally sent me. Maybe helpful for others buying from Takahashi My mother's pair is #3.





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Not my hand! Yy's boss' hand!





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I had asked for a photo comparing these three to some "top quality" smaller pearls. Because grading is often more lenient in larger sizes. I wanted to confirm I wasn't losing luster... Well, I remember thinking that this photo didn't exactly tell me much
But I trusted Yy's assessment and obviously there was nothing to worry about!

Wow these are all so so beautiful!!! Making me question if I’d like WSS or Akoyas… these are stunning!

 

[yssie]

Wow these are all so so beautiful!!! Making me question if I’d like WSS or Akoyas… these are stunning!

IMO this is a size question first and foremost! If you want 9mm or smaller you'll need to go akoya, 10mm or larger and you're in WSS territory - it's really only the 9-10mm range that overlaps

 

[pearaffair]

IMO this is a size question first and foremost! If you want 9mm or smaller you'll need to go akoya, 10mm or larger and you're in WSS territory - it's really only the 9-10mm range that overlaps

Ok this helps, thank you!

 

[pearaffair]

IMO this is a size question first and foremost! If you want 9mm or smaller you'll need to go akoya, 10mm or larger and you're in WSS territory - it's really only the 9-10mm range that overlaps

Oh another thought- I think comparatively the WSS have thicker nacre, typically? So that would be another consideration maybe?

 

[yssie]

Oh another thought- I think comparatively the WSS have thicker nacre, typically? So that would be another consideration maybe?

Yes! WSS normally have much thicker nacre. 1mm is abnormally thick for akoya but on the thin side for WSS!

Nacre thickness and luster don’t correspond exactly. Even I find it difficult to suppress the urge to equate them. But, like, *really* true… A certain minimum nacre thickness (generally agreed to be about 0.4mm in akoya, but nothing authoritative has ever been specified) is required to support longevity and stellar luster, but beyond that minimum threshold thicker nacre *really* doesn’t mean more lustrous.

Good reference -
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94737-w

 

[pearaffair]

Yes! WSS normally have much thicker nacre. 1mm is abnormally thick for akoya but on the thin side for WSS!

Nacre thickness and luster don’t correspond exactly. Even I find it difficult to suppress the urge to equate them. But, like, *really* true… A certain minimum nacre thickness (generally agreed to be about 0.4mm in akoya, but nothing authoritative has ever been specified) is required to support longevity and stellar luster, but beyond that minimum threshold thicker nacre *really* doesn’t mean more lustrous.

Good reference -
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94737-w

Thanks for the extra reading! I was thinking more nacre might add to longevity, but with proper care it’s probably no big deal.

 

[ittypea]

@yssie congrats on these, i am blown away by these beautiful studs! I love that you spoil your mom with jewelry!! I wish my mom and I lived near each other so we can swap bling pieces

And the show and tell… absolutely one of my favorite things to read over because of your honest and detailed review! I’ve learned all of my pearl knowledge from reading your old posts. I’ve done all my vendor research through this forum’s posts like this one! I’ve been so so happy my purchase from Takahashi (a necklace for my mom! And some studs for myself) I only hope that when I’m ready for a nice pair of large caliber akoyas that I could find something similar through takahashi!!

 

[MrsBlue]

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A few pics of my Miki 9.25, my mother's Takahashi studs, and a small natural white strand (no pinking, but I assume bleaching and maeshori). These photos show the overtone difference quite well I think

The NW doesn't suit me at all, honestly. White-bodied akoya err green, the pinking cuts the green. I'll keep it for now as a curiosity.

Such gorgeous photography @yssie! I really would be disappointed if you didn't put out a coffee table book someday.

Thank you for explaining the bit about nw pearls having green overtones. I do too! It explains why I find them so flattering whereas the pinks make me look ill.

 

[pearaffair]

@yssie have you already mentioned somewhere where you got the NW bracelet from? If you have, I missed it, sorry!

 

[yssie]

You guys are super sweet @ittypea, @MrsBlue thank you!! And @pearaffair I got the NW bracelet from a (non-PS) friend who bought it from Pearl Paradise several years ago, it's 6-6.5mm

 

[yssie]

I've been chatting with a few folks off PS and someone asked me who I'd go to for akoya now, after buying these pearls, thought I'd share some of what I'm thinking here

So... Well. I guess I'll start by saying that I honestly think I've got more sensitive eyes than most people. Including most vendors. I know that prob sounds pretty snotty but I don't mean it... Like that. Just that I really do see things that it seems like a lot of other people don't. I see diamond colour very acutely too. But, y'know, same as with diamonds, discerning doesn't automatically mean caring, even for me How much I care totally depends on how much I dislike whatever it is, and how much I'm going to pay!!

Takahashi has f***ing fantastic pearls. Like, objectively, incontrovertibly, unquestionably. And matching pearls is really hard. And really annoying. I did one card once and it took me *hours*, and I'll never do it again. Got to match size, surface, body colour, luster strength, overtone colour, overtone strength... As closely as possible... That's the hardest part, deciding what to sacrifice on when a perfect match ain't happening When I was buying these 9.5-10s Yy explained that in general customers who ask about them want uncompromisingly exacting matching. And since these pearls are so rare, exponentially moreso than even the next size down, they make their internal sorting standards commensurately unforgiving. But people looking for pearls smaller than that are more often (not always, of course, but more often) happy to compromise a bit in exchange for a great price. So they grade accordingly.

So when I wrote in to ask about 9.5-10mm pairs Yy was able to say "here's the three we got, they're already mated, which d'you want". Whereas when I asked about 9-9.5 she (or whoever out there) had to sort through a bunch of pearls and find some potential matches for me basically on the fly. And then she's got to do that same thing for however many other people have asked too. Thinking about that - I can't see how it's humanly impossible to give all those requests the same amount of attention the really rare specimens get? Actually I'm pretty confident Yy isn't matching the rare ones herself at all - I don't even know if she's involved, I'd guess they've got multiple people reviewing them? Well anyway. Hard to match. Especially since Takahashi doesn't charge for any of that service and photo time!! (I told Yy they should start doing that )

All that to say that I still think these three pairs were an incredibly *lucky* find. The fact that they're of the quality they are, and that they're as well-matched as they are... Seems to be a product of both lucky timing and a whole lotta #process that I had no idea was going on. I'll be honest, every time I buy from Takahashi I mentally sign my acceptance that I might buy something I'm not happy with and then I'll have no recourse. And actually most of the pairs I've bought from Takahashi haven't been 100% matches like these pearls. But I'm still thrilled with them, and my friends are too, because they were unbeatable value for money!!
But for a US-based buyer who wants to purchase with certainty - IMO that's a job for a US-based specialty vendor. The sort of vendor who specializes in searching for one-offs and hard-to-finds, so they know what you're looking for and you know they're ready to do the work to find it. And of course their pricing will be higher to reflect that. And hopefully they take returns. That's key in this scenario. Only way to guarantee personal certainty is to buy with personal viewing and option to return.
Takahashi has f***ing fantastic pearls but I think all of us PSers acknowledge that the potential reward isn't without some risk.

I'll personally happily keep buying from Takahashi for myself and recommending them to friends and family, Yy has never steered me wrong I'm just always careful to add the buying caveats. But... Okay, I've written about this before on here, I think it must be a cultural thing - all the Japanese vendors I've bought from have been so forthright. Almost jarringly so, at first. If Yy says "round" I know they'll have less than whatever numeric deviation she specifies, no "it's close enough", no "it'll set spherical". If she says "blemish-free" I know there won't be a single fishbite to be found, front or back, no "it's clean face-up". When I asked if some WG findings were nickel free she went into detail - they weren't made with nickel, but the factory that produced them did make other components with nickel, so I couldn't be sure they were entirely free of all traces of nickel - yeah that's "nickel free" by any American definition I really really appreciate that. That pedantic preciseness. Surprise, I'm on board with pedantic precision.

I'll happily buy from and recommend other vendors too, don't get me wrong. No one vendor is going to be right for every consumer. Or even one single consumer's every project. Treacle out of the treacle well and all that