A Return to Doha — Natural Pearls and Fabergé at DJWE 2025
Since 2012, Kehan has been a returning presence at the Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition — invited each year to examine, assess, and share her expertise on the most extraordinary gems and jewellery brought to the Arabian Gulf's most significant exhibition of its kind. The 2025 edition, staged at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre from late January into early February, marked DJWE's twentieth year — a milestone gathering of maisons, collectors, and specialists from across the world.
Few cities are as intrinsically bound to the pearl as Doha. Long before the discovery of oil transformed the region, Qatar's economy, identity, and craftsmanship revolved around the pearl beds of the Gulf — a heritage still audible in the language of Qatari luxury today. To be invited to work with natural pearls in this city, in this context, is to work in the one place where they are perhaps most deeply understood.
This year's assignment centred on a remarkable collection of natural pearls — strands, loose quantities, and significant single specimens spanning the full tonal range from golden South Sea pearls through the silvery greys of the Gulf to the quiet whites of classical Oriental pearl. Distinguishing natural from cultured pearls — and identifying natural pearls by their probable provenance — remains one of the most technically demanding tasks in gemmology, drawing on a combination of stereomicroscopy, X-ray radiography expertise, ultraviolet fluorescence, and, above all, a reference-library of hand experience accrued over decades.
Alongside the pearls, Kehan was asked to examine two exquisite Fabergé eggs — pieces where gemmological scrutiny meets the language of the decorative arts. Here the assessment extends beyond the stones and metals to craftsmanship, enamel technique, provenance documentation, and the subtle markers by which significant objects are authenticated. It is work that rewards the kind of slow, unhurried looking that the exhibition's hosts make possible.
These visits are never only about individual pieces. A week in Doha is also a week of conversations — with other specialists, with private collectors, with the families whose stewardship has kept the region's pearling tradition alive into a very different century. Kehan is grateful, as always, to her hosts for the continued invitation, and looks forward to returning.