The Pearl Renaissance: Natural Strands Become Serious Money

After decades in diamonds' shadow, natural pearls have staged jewelry's quietest comeback. Matched strands of natural South Sea and Gulf pearls — rarer than important diamonds, and impossible to farm into existence — now set records at the major evening sales.

The appeal is connoisseurship itself: judging a strand takes knowledge that cannot be bought quickly. In the salons of the great jewelers, pearls have become the insider's signal.