TAIWANESE CORAL

OUR CORAL:

 is NOT fake, look alike or imitation coral... its the REAL thing!   

(If in doubt, see ChatGPT's section at the end...!)

It is Taiwanese Coral from the late 1970's - early 1980s!

Like so many of our products, it has been stored away for something like nearly HALF a CENTURY!

Taiwan harvested an enormous amounts of coral in those days.

That has now been restricted with set quotas in order to protect the coral reefs and make coral harvesting a sustainable industry.

In 2014 Taiwan restricted the harvesting of Coral to 6,000 kg per year.

By the time this quantity is processed into beads, cabochons and carvings, the weight and number of Coral items getting to the market is drastically reduced.

 

When coral isn't CORAL!

The restrictions has caused a huge shortfall in the market and this shortfall has since been replaced with a flood of so-called "natural", "untreated" Coral imitations like bamboo, resins, re-constituted Coral etc...

Re-constituted coral is low grade, faulty and rubbish Coral crushed into powder, colouring added, then mixed with a resin and after which it can then be made into beads, cabochons and other items.

The colour of these imitations are usually a blood red to imitate Oxblood Coral which is the most sought after colour and highly priced.

Anything claimed to be Natural Coral and which has a perfectly uniform colour, all over, should be viewed with care, especially if it appears to be a bargain.

There is a huge amount of "coral" on the internet and it really is a case of: "Buyer beware!"

 

CORAL VALUE:

Very large pieces of Coral are very expensive and for good reason; to cut or carve something very large require a very large coral stem and that is very rare and hard to find.

The price for a cabochon cut Coral rise rapidly when the thickness of a Coral branch increase and width of the cabochon increase accordingly.

A cabochon cut stone that is about 13 mm wide may be something like 10 times more expensive than one that is 9 mm wide, like an 18 x 13 mm as against a 11 x 9 mm.

 

We stock:

Necklaces, Bracelets, Carvings for pendants, Carvings for earrings, Branches. 

We generally have Coral in the Pink range: 

Oxblood - Red - Very Dark Pink - Dark Pink - Pink - Light Pink - Very Light Pink - White

 

PLEASE NOTE:

If interested in large quantities, please contact us. 

 

ChatGPT’s analysis from photos of item 54199.0 - White Coral Branches:

Yes. This close-up provides stronger evidence that it is PRECIOUS CORAL rather than ordinary reef coral.

The useful clues are:
•    The branches appear solid, compact and porcelain-like, rather than covered with honeycomb pores or small star-shaped coral cups. 
•    The visible drill hole exposes a dense cream-coloured interior, not an open cellular structure. 
•    There are no regular joints or contrasting nodes, so it does not resemble bamboo coral. 
•    Several branches show faint lengthwise texture beneath the polish, consistent with the fibrous or striated structure associated with PRECIOUS CORAL.
•    The irregular branching, small secondary branchlets and occasional cream or pale-orange marks look natural rather than moulded. 

Taken together, this is consistent with coral from the precious-coral family Coralliidae, which includes Corallium, Pleurocorallium and Hemicorallium. 

Most likely identification: “NATURAL WHITE PRECIOUS CORAL, probably “Pure White” or “Shiro” coral, possibly Pleurocorallium konojoi.”

CIBJO (Confederation Internationale de la Bijouterie, Joaillerie, Orfevrerie des Diamants, Perles et Pierres, or in simpler terms, the World Jewellery Confederation) describes Shiro as uniformly white precious coral from Pleurocorallium konojoi, while Gem-A (The Gemmological Association of Great Britain) describes it as milky white, sometimes with pink or red specks. That is reasonably consistent with this necklace. 

Under a 10× loupe, look for very fine lengthwise striations running along the branches. These penetrating striations are characteristic of precious coral.

If instead you see numerous open pores or tiny star-shaped cups, it would be a stony reef coral rather than Shiro precious coral.

However, I would not guarantee the species from photographs. Other white or whitish precious corals—such as Pleurocorallium secundum or certain Hemicorallium species—can look similar after polishing. CIBJO specifically warns that conclusive species identification is complex and normally requires gemmological expertise. 

For a sale description, I would use:
Vintage natural white precious-coral branch necklace, imported from Taiwan in the late 1970s. Believed to be Shiro coral, possibly Pleurocorallium konojoi; exact species and treatment status not laboratory confirmed.

This photo is persuasive enough to call it PRECIOUS CORAL provisionally, but not enough for a definitive species declaration on CITES or European customs paperwork.