Thanks Anitap for posting the photos of the melo pearl and the conch pearls. I agree with Shah's comment on their stunning beauty, that surpasses the ...

The shimmering effect produced by chatoyancy in both the melo pearl and the conch pearls, look stunningly beautiful, and indeed surpasses the beauty o...

These are two stunning conch pearls from the same Bonhams catalogue of the Los Angeles Natural History Sale of Dec.11, 2011. Lot No. 1302, a rare 2.84...

I stumbled upon this stunning vivid-orange,papaya-colored,28.15-carat near-spherical melo pearl that appeared at the Bonhams Los Angeles, Natural Hist...

2) The second important factor that determines the shape of pearls is the nature of the tissues surrounding the growing pearl and positioning of the i...

The main factors that determine the shape of natural and cultured pearls are :- 1) The shape of the irritant for natural pearls,and the implanted nucl...

What are the factors that determine the shape of natural and cultured pearls ?

Yes indeed ! Peter. If information on all existing famous single pearls both of historic as well as modern origin, have been taken into account in our...

According to your information the occurrence of natural saltwater nacreous spherical pearls appear to be quite rare.

Under the spherical and near-spherical category, the largest perfectly round spherical pearl in the world, is the melo pearl, Bao Dai/Sunrise Pearl. ...

Under the symmetrical pearl category the largest pear-shaped drop-pearl is the 126-carat (504 grains) Gogibus Pearl. The largest symmetrical drop-sha...

The largest baroque pearl is without any doubt the non-nacreous Pearl of Allah, weighing 6 Kg or 30,000 carats or 120,000 grains. The largest nacreo...

What are the largest pearls in each of the categories you have mentioned ?

The commonest shape found in natural pearls, be they saltwater or freshwater is the irregular or baroque shape, followed by the rare symmetrical shape...

To what extent do these different shapes occur in nature ?