i have a strand of pearls that are probably 40 some years old. on the box it says Deltah worlds finest simulated pearls. Made in America
what is the difference between cultured pearls and simulated pearls?
March 31st, 2010 by admin Leave a reply »
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Your pearls are fake. Man made.
Cultured Pearls
A nacreous pearl is made from layers of nacre, by the same living process as is used in the secretion of the mother of pearl which lines the shell. A “natural pearl” is one that formed without any human intervention at all, in the wild, and is very rare. A “cultured pearl”, on the other hand, is one that has been formed on a pearl farm. The great majority of pearls on the market are cultured pearls.
Simulated Pearls
How Pearls are Made…Faux, Fake, Imitation, Simulated or Man-made
They are actually quite a lot older than 40 years, and they may be valuable as antiques. But they are simulated, faux pearls – not cultured pearls.
Deltah stands for Imperial Deltah. Imperial Deltah started as a faux pearl line in the late 1800s before transitioning to cultured pearls in early 1900s. They no longer deal in simulated pearls, only cultured. Their Web site is Pearls.com.
A cultured pearl is a genuine pearl. Cultured simply means it was grown intentionally – but still in a pearl oyster. All commercially marketed pearls today are cultured.
I could go into a lot more detail, but I suggest the following reading instead:
http://www.pearl-guide.com/cultured-pearls.shtml