Pearl necklace from Takahashi

[Gabor]

Hi everyone! I'm new here and this is my first thread so I hope it will post correctly. I would love some feedback from you ladies who bought necklaces from Takahashi in the past. I already got some quotes and pictures for options. I am now looking to see what extra costs it may entail ordering from them, other than duties, shipping and state use tax? I read in some post that you have to restring their strands because they are not using knots? I may remember this incorrectly of course. I am looking to buy Ten-nyo grade and it is pretty pricey, especially with all the extras. I am wondering if one could just wear the necklace as it comes? If not, how much does restringing cost?

In terms of PSL certificates, does one really need a certificate from them or one can just trust their grading/opinion? They seem to have already certified strands in stock, but I'm wondering if that drives up the cost unnecessarily?

Thank you all!

 

[katbran]

If you buy a strand..it will not be knotted. A necklace is knotted. So you want to tell them you want a necklace .
Strands are 16'
Knotted strands in a necklace are around 18" If you want longer they will need to match pearls and of course the cost goes up .
Just tell them exactly what you want and they will send a photo. Size, grade, length and clasp. ( im assuming a standard ball or fish hooks what they use but I buy unstrung pearls so can't help there )

 

[Gabor]

Thank you, katbran! It's nice to have that aspect ironed out. I'm hoping someone else will opine about the necessity of PSL certificates if ordering directly from Japan. I am feeling that by insisting on a certificate (pre-certified inventory) I may be limiting myself to a more limited inventory and also perhaps flexibility in pricing? My understanding is that these certificates are only for the western markets, and not used in Japan, the Japanese work 'on trust'... Anyone, please? Yssie?

 

[yssie]

My question for you: Why do you want the certificate?

I personally trust Takahashi’s assessments way more than I do PSL’s. I’ve bought no-cert strands (from Andrew Moline and Takahashi) that were far nicer than other strands with PSL Hanadama and Ten-nyo reports… The top PSL grade most definitely doesn’t guarantee actual top quality, unfortunately.

But after I’ve chosen my strands, if they’re ungraded, I still like to send them to PSL. Because I’m curious what they’ll say, and to have something concrete to insure with.

The thing is, for me, these days - when those ungraded pearls from Andrew Moline or Takahashi go to PSL, I trust that the pearls are of the quality I expect, and my question is whether PSL will recognize that quality or not. As in - it’s PSL I question, not the pearls, the pearls are my source of truth. In contrast to when I send diamonds to GIA - then it’s the diamonds I question, and I trust the GIA report as my source of truth.

It’s only Western markets that use PSL reports as sources of truth. Every Japanese vendor I’ve spoken to holds PEPCA in very high regard but PSL - yeah, not so much.

Long way of saying - yes, I would tell Takahashi what you want in terms of size and colour and quality, and not restrict your search to strands with PSL reports.

 

[Gabor]

Thank you so much for your response, I am happy you confirmed my thoughts about the PSL reports! They are found everywhere in great abundance, no wonder one starts questioning the whole apparatus. I am sure whatever T. sends, will be great quality, the only hurdle at this point is their no return policy that I'm still grappling with.

 

[yssie]

Feel free to the strand(s) you’re considering on PS if you’d like more input!

 

[Gabor]

Ok, so without disclosing any pricing or other sensitive info, here are the 2 Tennyo's in the run from T. regular pinked, certified, and I honestly cannot see a difference between the two?? A bit pricey, so she added in 2 Hanadamas, too, great comparison there (picture with the 3 rows). I'm wondering, if their 'better' Hanadama (the middle one) is of a higher quality Hanadama than what I could buy domestically? I wouldn't want to go through the hassle of the whole importing song and dance (plus 18% on top of the price) unless it is truly worth it. I import from time to time, artwork, not jewelry, and it's stressful and costly, and customs does open boxes sometimes!! She showed me certified stuff because that's how I opened the door, probably she could show me even better stuff, not certified, like you say. I also have this natural white, cert. Tennyo from another vendor not T., similar in price, that I am considering (bottom picture). There is 'bulleting' on one of the bottom pearls (mid-section) I am not sure if it is acceptable, but I know some minimal flaw is ok? I like the idea of natural white, but the ones I've seen before (like Mikimoto's) are very silvery, almost like stainless steel, too cold, not sure it will work, but on the other hand, I cannot do too pink either. I think both pinked and natural whites have their pros and cons - any thoughts there? Oh, and the natural white one can be returned. Now, let's see if I can manage to get the pictures up.

 

[diamondyes]

I know nothing except I love them all haha

 

[Gabor]

Just to clarify, the first two pics are both of the same Tennyo pearls; the third pic with the 3 rows of pearls is Tennyo (top row) Hanadams (second and third row; and last pic is the white natural Tennyo. If I could I'd get them all

 

[yssie]

Green is noticeably better quality than the other two. More contrasty = more lustrous, more glowy IRL. Difference would be visible in-person.




Natural white used to be regarded as the cream of the crop, objectively better. You’ll still see this sentiment on the other forum. I personally don’t view it that way - pinking is a routine process, it’s permanent, and it’s not penalized by the industry in any way.

IMO NW can be difficult to wear, depending on your skin tone - I think pinked pearls tend to be more universally flattering to a variety of complexions. But on the right skin NW is spectacular!! If that strand is returnable perhaps you could purchase it and see how you feel in-person?

Edit - Yup. Those little lumps and bumps are unfortunately par for the course with akoya. Even top of the line akoya. Interestingly, I’ve found that lower quality akoya are often smoother, it’s one of those open questions I’ve been chasing for what feels like years now

 

[Sprinkles&Stones]

Omg I’m crying, I love them all!

 

[Gabor]

Thank you for your input! I do feel inclined to try the NW, but I have to say, I love the luster of the T.'s Tennyo, your green choice. Could you decipher more regarding quality itself based on the picture of the NW?? Is the 'bulleting' acceptable? I know the picture is not the best.

 

[lovedogs]

I looooove the green @yssie Marked. Even my naive eyes immediately felt like the top 2 tennyo strands were noticeably better than the bottom 2 sets.

 

[lovedogs]

Ps for my own curiosity: @yssie what skin tones seem to work with NW? I've always suspected that pure white wojldnt work on me, but now I'm not sure

 

[yssie]

Thank you for your input! I do feel inclined to try the NW, but I have to say, I love the luster of the T.'s Tennyo, your green choice. Could you decipher more regarding quality itself based on the picture of the NW?? Is the 'bulleting' acceptable? I know the picture is not the best.

If this is what you mean by bulleting - yes. Normal. Also normal for akoya - even top strands - to have pearls with a little skin texture, a fishbite or two. If you don’t need all 16” knotted you you could always remove a few pearls, if there are some that you really don’t care for but you love the strand otherwise…
If you mean the general shapes of the pearls changing toward the edges of the photo - don’t worry about that at all, that’s just the photo. I’m confident the pearls are all spherical!


The lighting in this pic is the least flattering lighting, I think! “Spotlight” tends to both highlight skin texture and exaggerate slight overtone mismatches between pearls. So in some ways it’s the best possible lighting because it’s the worst the pearls will ever look

And also - all these photos were taken with phones. You can see fingers holding a phone in the reflection. Phones have software that automatically “enhances” photos to make them more appealing to you. Works great when you’re looking at a dog, or a landscape, where you want colours to be a bit more vivid and contrast to be dialed up a notch. Not so great when extra contrast or exaggeratedly different colours impacts how you judge a product you’re trying to purchase. See this post for photos of what I mean:
https://www.pricescope.com/communit...nd-from-takahashi-please.268624/#post-5023651
The point here is that the strand on the bottom LOOKS to be a bit more mismatched, and have slightly more textured skin than it will IRL thanks to the phone #fixing the photo. So try to… Quell the “yikes” a bit.

 

[yssie]

Ps for my own curiosity: @yssie what skin tones seem to work with NW? I've always suspected that pure white wojldnt work on me, but now I'm not sure

They work marvellously on my MIL, who is Caucasian but very tanned!! I think skin that’s closer to orange - with very little olive - is ideal!! Most akoya have some green, the pinking takes the edge off the green… Which IMO really helps those of us who don’t have that strong orange

Edit: I should clarify - NW means “not pinked”, which means “they didn’t sit on a shelf in a bottle of pink dye for a few months”. But NW akoya can and usually do still have slight pink overtone! It’s just that pinking *almost always* makes for stronger pink overtone. I had - and rehomed - a pair of NW studs from Pearl Paradise that had very strong pink overtone - they looked like normal pinked akoya. They were unusual that way though. Most NW have just a slight pink overtone… Some strands maybe a bit more than others.

 

[icy_jade]

Asians who look good in cool colors. After seeing NW on me vs usual pinked akoya, I just cannot bring myself to buy normal akoya anymore.

Objectively for me, NW are the best. Even if the pinked akoya have better luster, the NW still look better on vs pearls with better luster.

If you typically can wear pinks and pastel clothes, pinked akoya is the way to go.

 

[Gabor]

Awesome insight on the effect of lighting @yssie !! That link you sent me to made me a bit sad though, because it included some gorgeous strands from Takahashi that they had sent to the @Bojangles lady! Up until today I thought the 2 Tennyos (pictures) they sent me had awesome luster, but what they sent her blows mine out of the water!! This search is very frustrating! I sometimes think I should just go into Mikimoto's and get a strand at their entry level, and be done. I know, it will not be as lustrous, but it will still be 'nice', especially as the prices for the Tennyos, with all the extras calculated in, are honestly not that terribly far away from Miki's (at A level).

 

[diamondyes]

Awesome insight on the effect of lighting @yssie !! That link you sent me to made me a bit sad though, because it included some gorgeous strands from Takahashi that they had sent to the @Bojangles lady! Up until today I thought the 2 Tennyos (pictures) they sent me had awesome luster, but what they sent her blows mine out of the water!! This search is very frustrating! I sometimes think I should just go into Mikimoto's and get a strand at their entry level, and be done. I know, it will not be as lustrous, but it will still be 'nice', especially as the prices for the Tennyos, with all the extras calculated in, are honestly not that terribly far away from Miki's (at A level).

I can relate to the mild frustration and confusion. It’s so hard to compare pearls using only online photos!

 

[DorotheaBrooke]

I think those top two are gorgeous!

I can answer your question about extra costs. I purchased an 8.5-9 mm strand and earrings, gem quality (no cert). I paid a little over $600 USD extra for a necklace with a gold clasp and gold backs for the earrings. (Silver would have been much less.) The FedEx fee was about $100 and I later paid about $300 in duty.

Here’s a photo to show the complete set, although it does not show the luster to full advantage. They look very similar to the top two strands you posted.

Good luck with your search!

 

[yssie]

Awesome insight on the effect of lighting @yssie !! That link you sent me to made me a bit sad though, because it included some gorgeous strands from Takahashi that they had sent to the @Bojangles lady! Up until today I thought the 2 Tennyos (pictures) they sent me had awesome luster, but what they sent her blows mine out of the water!! This search is very frustrating! I sometimes think I should just go into Mikimoto's and get a strand at their entry level, and be done. I know, it will not be as lustrous, but it will still be 'nice', especially as the prices for the Tennyos, with all the extras calculated in, are honestly not that terribly far away from Miki's (at A level).

It’s really impossible to compare between pictures, given the sorts of nuances we’re nitpicking, so don’t worry about that

Don’t buy Mikimoto A, A+, or AA. Please don’t do that. It’s easy, but the pearls are just not world class, no point paying world class premium for a not-world-class product!

Here’s what I’d do. Buy the returnable NW Ten-nyo. It’s returnable, so if you don’t love it you lose nothing! Except maybe some small shipping fee? See if you like the luster and if you like NW on you. It might be a gorgeous strand and you might love NW!! Definitely recommend exploring the lowest risk option first.

If you love the luster but NW doesn’t work for you, you can look at regular pinked strands at that time. If you love the NW but the luster in that strand isn’t what you’re hoping for then other vendors have NW options too.

If you live near a Mikimoto, when you get the NW Ten-nyo take it in and do some in-person comparing.

Doing it this way is a lot more work, and more time, but you *can* get beautiful and uncompromising pearls with much lower out of pocket.

 

[lovedogs]

I think those top two are gorgeous!

I can answer your question about extra costs. I purchased an 8.5-9 mm strand and earrings, gem quality (no cert). I paid a little over $600 USD extra for a necklace with a gold clasp and gold backs for the earrings. (Silver would have been much less.) The FedEx fee was about $100 and I later paid about $300 in duty.

Here’s a photo to show the complete set, although it does not show the luster to full advantage. They look very similar to the top two strands you posted.

Good luck with your search!

Lovely!!! Are these also from T?

 

[DorotheaBrooke]

Lovely!!! Are these also from T?

Oh yes, forgot to clarify. My pearls are from Takahashi. Wonderful to work with.

 

[katbran]

Totally agree that the Top strands blow the others out of the water . However that NW strand looks amazing !
Buying strands from photos is terribly difficult with pearls like Tahitian...the colours are just never quite what is in the photos. I don't find White that hard if I can get some decent closeups of the surface skin. At a distance it can be hard to see the true texture of the surface.

 

[Gabor]

I think those top two are gorgeous!

I can answer your question about extra costs. I purchased an 8.5-9 mm strand and earrings, gem quality (no cert). I paid a little over $600 USD extra for a necklace with a gold clasp and gold backs for the earrings. (Silver would have been much less.) The FedEx fee was about $100 and I later paid about $300 in duty.

Here’s a photo to show the complete set, although it does not show the luster to full advantage. They look very similar to the top two strands you posted.

Good luck with your search!

That's so sweet of you @DorotheaBrooke , thank you for the info! That set is absolutely gorgeous!!! Is it 16" or 18" long? I like it more with the gold clasp, it's classier, but that's extra too, of course. Did you have it certified after the purchase or didn't bother?

 

[Gabor]

It’s really impossible to compare between pictures, given the sorts of nuances we’re nitpicking, so don’t worry about that

Don’t buy Mikimoto A, A+, or AA. Please don’t do that. It’s easy, but the pearls are just not world class, no point paying world class premium for a not-world-class product!

Here’s what I’d do. Buy the returnable NW Ten-nyo. It’s returnable, so if you don’t love it you lose nothing! Except maybe some small shipping fee? See if you like the luster and if you like NW on you. It might be a gorgeous strand and you might love NW!! Definitely recommend exploring the lowest risk option first.

If you love the luster but NW doesn’t work for you, you can look at regular pinked strands at that time. If you love the NW but the luster in that strand isn’t what you’re hoping for then other vendors have NW options too.

If you live near a Mikimoto, when you get the NW Ten-nyo take it in and do some in-person comparing.

Doing it this way is a lot more work, and more time, but you *can* get beautiful and uncompromising pearls with much lower out of pocket.

Thanks, @yssie , yes, you're right, I should give the NW a try. I'm quite pale, neutral skin, can wear both yellow based and pink based foundations and wear pink and red lipstick a lot. I saw some Mikimotos this past weekend, but the stores (not flagship) only had A grade stuff. I was really hoping to see some more variety though, but they had studs in the different grades, so that was still educational. The AAA studs were really glowing, amazing!! I also went to see Tiffany's as it was close by, but they had very little stock, only their entry level Essentials series, they had nothing from the Signature series to look at in stock, I was very unimpressed.

The only caveat, and I don't know if it is true or not, but I remember reading somewhere on this or other forum that somehow pinking enhances luster, so pinked ones are supposedly more glowy/lustery than NW ones, and I want that lightbulb effect and luster most of all (I can live with the fish bites!) ??

Here are some pictures with Mikimotos. The little necklace in the background in the first picture had a very nice pink glow, the 2 necklaces in the front were more silvery, don't know if they are NW or not.

su

 

[DorotheaBrooke]

That's so sweet of you @DorotheaBrooke , thank you for the info! That set is absolutely gorgeous!!! Is it 16" or 18" long? I like it more with the gold clasp, it's classier, but that's extra too, of course. Did you have it certified after the purchase or didn't bother?

Thank you! I did not have it certified. That doesn't matter to me at all; I just wanted one lovely string of pearls. The necklace is almost 18".

 

[Gabor]

Thank you! I did not have it certified. That doesn't matter to me at all; I just wanted one lovely string of pearls. The necklace is almost 18".

Do you wear it every day? Do you find the size 8.5-9 not too big? I want something that I can wear everyday and not just have it sit in the drawer (life is too short for that!), but do not want to look too dressed up either. I was thinking 8-8.5 but like the idea of 8.5-9 and the price difference is not that big once you go to all the trouble.

 

[DorotheaBrooke]

Do you wear it every day? Do you find the size 8.5-9 not too big? I want something that I can wear everyday and not just have it sit in the drawer (life is too short for that!), but do not want to look too dressed up either. I was thinking 8-8.5 but like the idea of 8.5-9 and the price difference is not that big once you go to all the trouble.

The 8.5-9 mm size is not too big for me (I'm 5'7"). I bought the pearls to wear with professional outfits. I have not tried to wear them casually, although I'm open to styling suggestions! For everyday I wear a diamond pendant.

 

[Gabor]

Oh, goodness, looks even better on you! It just glistens and glistens! I think that's the perfect size for you, not too big, actually a great size for many I think, probably me, too. I also think you can easily wear it with more casual outfits, too, since it's just a single strand it is very versatile. IMO when you go to doubles and triples that it gets more fussy. Thank you for taking the time to post your photo for me!!