Paspaley Pearl and The Vivienne

So this strand is a strand that we've affectionately called the Vivian, which is named after my grandmother Vivian Pesprelli, who was the wife of Nick Pesprelli, our founder. And this really shows you how big and fine in quality an Australian South Sea Pearl strand can be. It's 17 to 22 millimetres in size, but the important thing about it is the quality and colour of the pearls and they have beautiful luster and a soft white-pink colour and each pearl is perfect and perfectly matched and it's really a one-of-a-kind. This is a really fine quality pearl, we call it the Pesprelli Pearl, that was harvested in 2003. It's not the biggest pearl we've ever discovered, it's just over 20 millimetres, but it's the largest pearl with its combination of size and this beautiful colour, white-pink colour and intense luster, which is really exceptionally rare and unusual in any pearl, let alone a pearl of that size. A pearl with very high quality naked will allow light to enter and refract and it can give this kind of crystal clear reflection, but also a glow and a beautiful coloured overtone that we call orient. It's kind of a difficult thing to describe, it's sort of an iridescence. I'm asked for the value of this pearl almost every time I show it. How do you value something that's one-of-a-kind? We've never really considered selling it, so we've never really considered what the value might be, but it's certainly by far and away the most valuable cultured pearl that's ever been discovered. This pearl was displayed in the Smithsonian Institute for a year. It's one that we just keep for our collection because it's irreplaceable until we find another one.