The Culture of Pearls

In India it is said that Krishna found the first pearl. The Chinese Emperors prized them, the Greeks loved their unrivaled beauty, and the Egyptians were buried with them.

In Rome, the Emperor Vitellius had financed an entire military campaign by selling one of his mother's pearl earrings.

Cleopatra reportedly dissolved and drank one in a bet

A story has it that Cleopatra bet Marc Antony a large sum of money that she could host the most expensive meal in history.

Afterward an extraordinary meal of exotic foods, Cleopatra removed one of her pearl earrings and dropped it into a goblet of wine vinegar. This single pearl was said to be exquisitely beautiful and as expensive as "the value of 15 countries."

In any case, it was worth a fortune.

The pearl dissolved in the vinegar and Cleopatra drank it. Antony conceded defeat. The value of that single drink had indeed been more expensive than any meal in history.

Natural pearls form when a parasite burrows through a mollusk's shell and into the mantle tissue. The mollusk's defensive reaction is surround the intruder with a membrane known as a pearl sac. As it continues to grow -- a pearl grows.

Damage to the mollusk's shell has also been known to cause natural pearl formation. A grain of sand does NOT produce a pearl.

Cultured pearls are produced by introducing a nucleus and a piece of donor-mollusk tissue in the pearl oyster.

A famous pearl, now lost, destroyed, or hidden away by a discreet collector, once belonged to King Charles I.

Artist Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) painted several portraits of the king, many of which show a large drop pearl hanging from his left ear. In the portrait, Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles, 1636, which is now on display at the Windsor Castle in the UK, a clear representation of this great pearl is visible.

King Charles I was executed in 1649 and as the pearl was so greatly coveted, it was said that as soon as his head had fallen from his body, a horde of witnesses surged forward to steal the prized gem.

La Peregrina, the Pilgrim, is an incomparable pearl. It's celebrated not only for its great size, but also its perfect pear shape, and bright white colouration.

It traveled from one of the Spanish colonies in South America in the 16th century and was presented to Philip II of Spain in about 1574.

It's a magnificent jewel and Philip's wife, the elegant Mary, wears it in almost all her portraits as queen. The pearl was acknowledged to be beyond any standard valuation.

Later it belonged to Queen Margaret of Spain (pictured) as well as to Joseph Bonaparte, another king of Spain. It ended up with the son of the Emperor Napoleon III and then made its way into the hands of the English Marquis of Abercorn.

La Peregrina is now owned by Elizabeth Taylor.

To this day no one is sure if a pearl named 'La Pellegrina' and another pearl 'La Reine De Pearl' are the same pearl, or two.

The historical records of La Pellegrina state that the saltwater pearl was found off the coast of South America and was once a part of the Spanish Crown Jewels. The description of the pearl itself is remarkably similar to that of La Reine De Pearls

La Reine de Pearl, a reported 27.5 carats, was once a part of the Crown Jewels of France. It's listed in the French inventory in 1791 with an astonishing value of 200,000 francs. It's described as "a virgin pearl, perfect, round, and of fine water">.

The majority of the French Crown Jewels were stolen in 1792, including 'La Reine De Pearl'. Many believe this pearl made its way into the possession of the Zozima Brothers (jewelers of the Czar of Russia), who promptly renamed the gem 'La Pellegrina'.

La Pellegrina itself disappeared for a number of years. It had been quietly tucked away by a collector, only to resurface in 1967 to be auctioned off at Christie's auction house ior 463,800. English Pounds

The largest and most famous natural saltwater pearl is the Hope Pearl, an astonishing gem.

The pearl weighs 1,800 grains (450 carats), or approximately 4 ounces! The Hope pearl is coloured a dark bronze at the bottom of a drop shape, grading into white. It's thought that this pearl grew attached to the shell and was carefully removed and smoothed where it was separated from the shell.

The Hope Pearl was once owned by Henry Philip Hope, the one-time owner of the Hope Diamond. After remaining in the Hope Jewel collection at a South Kensington Museum for many years, it has since been sold and is the property of a private collector.

The Peatl of Allah is called the Ugliest Pearl in the World. This giant, non-nacreous natural blister pearl was taken from a giant clam, Tridacna Gigas, in the waters off the Philippines in 1934. It's one of the largest, most valuable pearls ever to be discovered and documented.

Archeologist Wilburn Cobb brought the pearl to New York in 1939 and had it authenticated as a genuine tridacna pearl described as being almost 14 pounds and 9 inches long. Contrary to the perfectly shaped orbs with pearlescent sheens, this pearl was grotesquely irregular in shape with many tortuous surfaces, much like a brain, and had a matte, porcelain-like surface.

Cobb exhibited the pearl at Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Odditorium in New York City, where it was claimed to be the largest in the world.

The painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring (Het Meisje met de Parel) in The Mauritshuis in The Hague is one of Vermeer's masterworks.

The portrait is sometimes referred to as "the Mona Lisa of the North" or "the Dutch Mona Lisa".

Broome, located in the far north of Western Australia, was a thriving pearl town in the old days. Once the pearl luggers worked their dangerous way in the waters off Broome and pearls helped create the distinctive multicultural charm of the town.

In the 1870s, Europeans noticed the large Pinctada maxima oyster off the east coast of Australia. Soon the Aboriginal women who dived for shellfish in these waters were outumbered by the Sri Lankan divers intent on harvesting the oysters. The Mother of Pearl shell was used across the world to make buttons, and more and more shell was needed.

In the beginning, the oysters were so plentiful they could be picked up at low tide while walking along the sand. Of course they were soon depleted and more sophisticated diving methods had to be used. By the 1930s, motorised pearl luggers with mechanical air pumps were everywhere to be seen.

The work was hard, and fraught with dangers. In the Japanese section of the cemetry are the graves of almost one thousand divers. Enter Kokichi Mikimoto, and the cultured pearl industry. In less than 50 years, the Queen of Gems, once the exclusive possession of royalty, became available to almost everybody. The days of diving beneath the waters for pearls has gone but the memory remains in luggers still plying the pearl routes, this time with tourists.

Pearls have been a source of fascination for centuries as the most magical and feminine of all gems.

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