PEARL ANALYSIS FOR NATURAL PEARLS
Now Available in Mumbai
Pearls are marvels of nature that form in a variety of molluscs and exist in a stunning array of colours and quality. Know your pearl’s identity and quality with reports offered by GIA, the independent, unbiased pearl expert since 1949.
GIA Pearl Identification Report
Discover the quantity, weight, shape, colour, overtone, identity (natural or cultured), mollusc origin type (when determinable) and formation environment of your pearl(s), as well as any detectable treatments. The Identification Report includes a digital image and is available for any pearls, loose, mounted, or strung.
Add-On Services
Express Service: Expedite pearl report turnaround time to 48 business hours.
Nacre Thickness: Know your bead cultured pearl’s nacre thickness, listed in the comments section.
Monograph™: Showcase and celebrate an exceptional pearl with a detailed monograph, complete with photographs, identification and classification information, spectroscopic analysis, historical background and more. This complete story or your pearl is presented within a luxury box inscribed with the pearl’s name.
Portrait™ Report: Discover the data behind your Pearl Identification Report, packaged in a hard-bound portfolio.
For more information, visit Pearl Reports & Services
How GIA Classifies and Identifies Pearls
GIA is committed to serving the public through the relentless pursuit of research, education, and laboratory innovation. Our gemmologists and pearl experts use both standard and advanced instruments to identify your pearls and its potential treatments.
This includes using real-time microradiography equipment to observe pearls’ internal growth structures and separate natural pearls from cultured pearls. We also compare your pearls to a set of carefully pre-selected pearl masters to help determine colour.
All pearls are independently analysed by two different teams of pearl experts to ensure a precise and objective evaluation.
Natural and Cultured Pearls
Pearls are gems that form inside a living mollusc. They exist in a wide variety of sizes, colours, and shapes influenced by a variety of factors, such as mollusc species, environmental conditions and human interference.
Natural pearls form when the mantle of a mollusc is irritated by a foreign “intruder.” The mollusc secretes calcium carbonate, often in the form of nacre, to protect itself from the irritant. As the mollusc deposits more and more layers, a pearl forms. Most natural pearls are small and irregular in shape. Large pearls with round or drop shapes are incredibly rare and valuable.
Cultured pearls form through human intervention when a nucleus is planted into the mollusc to spur pearl growth. The nucleus is often a round shell bead, which helps determine the size and shape of the pearl that forms. The most common cultured nacreous pearls are South Sea, Tahitian, akoya and freshwater.