Mediterranean Red Coral

Mediterranean red coral has been fished and worked around the same few ports for centuries, and the finishing skill is still concentrated there. We buy worked material and finished pieces from those workshops and deliver them wherever the buyer is, Japan included.

Why Japan is a serious market

Red coral has a long place in Japanese ornament, in obidome and kanzashi, and red carries celebratory meaning here that it does not carry everywhere. Japanese buyers are also unusually exacting about colour and surface, which is worth knowing before you send a parcel that would pass elsewhere.

Practical notes

• Provenance documentation is not optional. Precious coral is a regulated fishery with quotas and minimum sizes, and the rules move. We supply harvest and processing records with every shipment, and we confirm the current requirements for your destination before we ship rather than after.
• Colour drives price steeply. Deep oxblood commands a large multiple of pale rose for the same weight. Grading is done by eye against reference material, so we agree the standard with samples rather than words.
• Substitutes are common. Dyed bamboo coral, reconstituted powder and glass are all sold as coral. We buy from known workshops and will state plainly what a piece is.
• Coral is soft. It scratches and it reacts to acid and heat. Setting, cleaning and display all need to account for that, and we pass on the handling notes with the goods.

Tell us the form, the colour grade and whether you want worked material or finished pieces, and we will send samples with documentation.