Glossary of Pearl Terms N
nabatee: Arabian term for sugar used to describe pearls from the Persian Gulf that had a slightly off-white, yellowish color.
nacre: Aragonite and calcite platelets bound together by conchiolin that completely compose bivalve and abalone natural pearls, keshi, tissue-cultured freshwater pearls, and the coating on the nucleus of bead-cultured and bead-and-tissue-cultured pearls.
nacreous: Composed of nacre.
nacre thickness: Measured in whole and decimal fractions of millimeters, the depth of the nacre layer on the bead nucleus of bead-cultured and bead-and-tissue-cultured pearls. Not a consideration for natural and cultured pearls composed entirely of nacre (see).
Nassau pearl: Historical term for conch pearl.
National Federation of Pearl Cultivators? Cooperative Association (Zen Shin Ren): Japanese association that organizes hama-age auctions.
National Pearl Research Laboratory: Established in 1952 in Mie Prefecture, Japan, with the intention of improving pearl culture technologies.
natural pearl: Organic gem created in a mollusk without human intervention.
Nautilus pearl: Natural pearl from Nautilus pompilius, extremely rare. Osmenda imitation pearls are often incorrectly called nautilus pearls.
nimro: Historical Persian quality factor describing blister pearls.
Nishikawa, Tokishi: Credited with Tatsuhei Mise (probably erroneously), with discovering the bead-and-tissue method of whole pearl culture.
non-beaded cultured pearl: Cultured pearl grown without a bead nucleus.
non-nacreous pearl: Natural pearl lacking a nacreous surface layer.
non-nucleated cultured pearl: Cultured pearl grown without a bead nucleus.
nucleus: Bead implanted in a host mollusk, most often with a tissue piece, to become the core of a cultured pearl.
nuggets: Semi-round pearls that resemble gold nuggets.
