Cultured Pearl
"All art is
autobiographical; the Pearl is the oyster's
autobiography".
Federico Fellini (1920-1993)
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Kokichi
Mikimoto (1858-1954) devoted his
life to perfecting Pearl farming and
is the 'father' of the modern Pearl
industry
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Humble in origin yet unquestionably beautiful,
Pearls are one of the world's oldest and most
enduring gemstones. They mightn't have the
'bedazzle' of some other gems, but I agree with Fellini, there is something inherently artistic
about Pearls; they embody a subtle
sophistication, which is probably why they have
such a lasting appeal. Pearls truly are natural
wonders and just like Amber, they're not your
average gemstone. The progeny of oysters,
mussels and clams (or collectively, molluscs),
Pearls are classed as organic gems and this
classification includes any gemstone made or
derived from living organisms.
Our modern name for this June birthstone is
actually pretty new. Pearl is derived from the
Latin 'perna' (ham) in reference to the shape of
some Pearl mussels, but has only been in play
since the 18th century. Prior, the English
called them 'unions' (from the Latin 'unio',
meaning 'unity' or 'a single large Pearl') or
the old Greek and Roman name, 'margarita'.
Nothing to do with that famous 1889 pizza, some
associate 'margarita' with 'marine' because
Pearls are waterborne, but I like to think it
comes from the Persian 'murwari'. Meaning 'child
of light', this helps explain why Pearls have
long been a symbol of purity and innocence. As
suggested by their name for this gem, the
ancient Persians believed Pearls to be created
by moonlight shining magically into open oyster
shells. The Persian Gulf is the genesis of
humanity's fascination with Pearls and even
today, continues as a source for 'natural'
Pearls, whose only significant remaining market
is the Middle East.
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Seed Pearls
are 'young' Pearls that first gained
popularity in the Victorian period
as jewellery accent gemstones |
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Delicate, incomparable, luminescent, lustrous,
radiant, and unique, Pearls might be
quintessentially feminine gemstones and a
timeless symbol of refined taste, but what
exactly are they? The ancient Chinese told their
children they were tears of sharks, but after
watching the remorseless 'Jaws' as a boy, I
would have found this hard to believe. For the
ancient Egyptians, Pearls were for Isis, the
goddess of healing and life, while in the
Greco-Roman pantheon they were the tears of joy
wept by Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of love
and beauty. To the Romans, Pearls were born when
oysters swallowed dewdrops filled with moonlight
that fell into the ocean. At school, I was
taught that Pearls where caused by grains of
sand entering the oyster and this isn't
incorrect, just a romantic over-simplification.
In truth, beautiful Pearls are the way molluscs
respond to infection. When an irritant, such as
a piece of coral or parasite, enters the
mollusc's soft tissue its natural defence
mechanism kicks in, coating the intruder with a
cocktail of calcium carbonate, better known as
'nacre', from the Arabic for shell, 'naqqarah'.
Left to its own devices and a lot of luck, this
process might yield a marketable Pearl over
time. The problem is, this rarely happens in the
wild and even if it does, you've still got to
find it! This is the reason Pearls were for
centuries considered among the most valuable
gemstones and a potent symbol of power,
prestige, social status and wealth. Over 2,000
years ago in ancient Rome, Pearls were the most
valuable thing money could buy. Julius Caesar,
Roman general, dictator and (believe it or not)
Pearl aficionado, once paid 60,000 gold pieces
for a single Pearl and in the 1st century BC
enacted a law forbidding the lower ranks from
wearing them. Even Caesar's failed invasion of
Britain was to secure its coveted river Pearls.
Back in the glory days of the British Empire,
Queen Elizabeth I was so enraptured by Pearls
she was called the 'Pearl Queen'. The historic
esteem of Pearls is even recorded in religion.
In Matthew (13:45-46) Jesus compares the kingdom
of heaven to a "Pearl of great price", while in
the Koran (35:33) the kingdom of heaven has
"gardens of perpetual bliss will they enter,
therein to be adorned with bracelets of gold and
Pearls".
All this changed for the better in 1908, when a
Japanese noodle maker, Kokichi Mikimoto, started
the world's first commercial Pearl farm.
Rudimentary Pearl farming had been practised in
China as early as the 5th century, but it was Mikimoto, aptly called the 'Pearl King', who
managed to shuck the proverbial oyster,
culturing perfectly round Pearls and marketing
them to a willing world. Since the sixties,
cultured Pearls have become the market norm and
trust me, this is a good thing. What was
previously an aristocratic luxury reserved for
high society has now become an extravagance
everyone can afford. Also, let's not forget that
Pearl greed once decimated Central American
oyster populations and resulted in the near
extinction of Scottish rivers mussels (pearling
has been banned in the UK since 1998).
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Appearing in
an attractive array of iridescent
colours, Mother of Pearl was named
by Queen Elizabeth I in the 15th
century. Beautiful yet remarkably
affordable, as its name suggests,
Mother of Pearl is the lustrous
inside of
mollusc shells |
Defined as a natural process with human
intervention, culturing is just giving nature ahelping hand. Cultured Pearls are propagated by
'nucleation', which simply involves introducing
an implant (nucleus), either a bead (typically
made from rounded and polished oyster shell,
Mother of Pearl) or a piece of tissue, into the mollusc so it's coated with nacre, thus
triggering the formation of a Pearl. After
they've been seeded, the molluscs go back into
the water to grow. The depth of the nacre has a
big impact on a Pearl's value (more below) and
depends on the rate of nacre accumulation, which
in turn is determined by environmental
conditions and its species. This takes time,
anywhere from eight months to six years, during
which everything can go wrong. Relying on luck
as much as skill, Pearl farming is a risky
business. Uncontrollable factors, such as
disease, storms, temperature fluctuations and
water pollution, can wipe you out overnight. For
example, two tropical storms killed off millions
of Pearl oysters in south eastern China in
August 2007. Having visited the freshwater Pearl
farms of China's Zhuijiang Province, I found
that Pearl farming is big business, but are they
still rare enough to really be gemstones? In my
mind, yes! Only half of the cultured Pearls
harvested are marketable and less than five
percent are top-quality perfectly round Pearls.
Natural and cultured Pearls are instinctually
the same, they both come from a mollusc not a
science lab, which is why many in the gem
industry were horrified by the United States
Federal Trade Commission's recent ruling,
allowing the term 'cultured' to be used to
market synthetic gemstones. Even though they are
farmed, Pearls remain a coveted natural product
and as with all gemstones, perfection is rare.
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Freshwater
Pearl 925 Silver Necklace |
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Apart from their lustrous beauty, part of
Pearls' classical appeal must have been that
once out of their shell, they're pretty much
ready to wear and don't need the time-consuming
lapidary of mineral gems. But how do you judge a
Pearl? Firstly, forget the 4Cs (colour, cut,
clarity and carat weight) as they don't apply to
Pearls. Secondly, provenance is critical as
different Pearls from different locations have
different qualities and prices. The four main
Pearl types are Akoya, Chinese Freshwater, South
Sea and Tahitian. Species aside, Pearls are
judged by their body colour, translucency,
orient (overtone), lustre, surface clarity or
texture, size, shape and symmetry. Like all
gems, beauty is of paramount importance and for
Pearls, lustre and orient are the two most
important factors. Regardless of your taste or
budget, the good news is that cultured Pearls
offer a huge range of shapes and colours that
vary depending on their species, nucleus shape,
shell position and growing conditions.
Close your eyes and think of a Pearl and I bet
you see something white and round. This might be
the classic perception, but the reality is that
the basic body colour of Pearls offers a myriad
of choices: apricot (yellowish-orange), black,
blue, bronze (reddish-brown), champagne
(pinkish-yellow), chocolate, cream, golden,
green, grey, orange, peach (pinkish-orange),
plum (reddish-violet), purple, red, violet,
white, yellow and everything in-between. While
some professionals regard green tints in Akoya
and South Sea white Pearls as less desirable and
greys should be silvery not dull, colour is
subjective and ultimately, a matter of personal
preference. Regardless, a Pearl's body colour
alone isn't that important in assessing its
beauty. The real determinant is how a Pearl's
body colour, translucency, lustre, and orient
all work together. A good guide is to choose a
body colour that compliments your skin tone. In
his book, 'Secrets of the Gem Trade', Richard
Wise describes this "compatibility with the skin
of the wearer" using the Italian word,
'simpatico', which means 'pleasing' or
'sympathetic'. This excellent terminology
actually embodies the almost symbiotic
relationship between Pearls and people. It has
long been known that Pearls look more beautiful
if worn regularly and English ladies of the 18th
century were quick to adopt the Indian practice
of having their servants wear their Pearls so
they were always warm and luminescent.
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In the 5th
century, the Chinese experimented
with Pearl culturing by placing
little lead Buddha's inside mussels.
By the 14th century, they were the
first to master the art,
particularly with respect to
culturing Mabe Pearls (pictured).
Mabe Pearls are hemispherical shaped
Pearls, grown against the inside of
the mollusc's shell
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The orient or overtone is the secondary colour
of Pearls, and along with lustre, is what makes
the finest examples. This overtone of
translucent colours moves over a Pearl's body
colour, accentuating or contrasting as well as
adding depth and glow. Orient comes from the
Latin 'oriens', which means 'the rising of the
sun' and this is definitely apt; it often looks
like an internal sun breaking through a lucid
dawn. It occurs because a Pearl's nacre is
deposited in thin layers that bend light into
one or many spectral hues. While the orient is
typically monotone, how many colours are
visible, and their intensity, is down to the
Pearl species and nacre thickness. The orient is
most visible on the crest of a Pearl's horizon,
but not all Pearls display orient. Even if the
species produces orients, if a Pearl isn't given
enough time to grow, the nacre will not be thick
enough to diffract light. Because of the way
they are cultivated, Akoya Pearls have thin
nacre, so they rarely display orient. As most
Chinese Freshwater Pearls are tissue nucleated,
they are almost all nacre and sometimes display
unique rainbow iridescence, particularly when
irregularly (baroque) shaped. In my experience,
orient is most visible in Tahitian Pearls, which
is not surprising, considering the contrast
afforded by their black body colour (just like
Black Opals) and that their nacre is comprised
of thousands of layers up to 10 millimetres
thick.
Generally, Pearls with colourful orients are
more valuable than those that have little or no
orient, but a high lustre is also significant,
especially if orients aren't typical for the
species. For me, lustre largely defines the
beauty of Pearls and is as important to Pearls
as brilliance is to transparent gemstones. A
Pearl's lustre should be bright, snappy and
reflective, not dreary, blurry or lazy. Much
like orient, lustre is also related to nacre
thickness, but like inclusions in transparent
gemstones, a Pearl's surface clarity or texture
is also important. Pearls with smooth silky
surfaces will reflect light greater and more
evenly than ones with significant imperfections.
Of course, if you can't see them, blemishes
don't affect a gem's beauty, so clever jewellers
often set Pearls in a manner that hides
imperfections. As with all gems, size matters
and all things being equal, the bigger the Pearl
the higher the value. Because of the size of
their oysters and their prodigious nacre
creation, South Sea and Tahitian are usually the
largest cultured Pearls. While it is said that
Caesar could judge a Pearl's value simply by
weighing it in his hand, today his skills
wouldn't be much use; Pearls are typically
measured by their millimetre size, not by their
weight. In the 'Shu King', a 23 BC Chinese
manuscript, a lesser king's tribute of "strings
of Pearls not quite round" is belittled by the
scribe and while perfectly rounds are still
valued highest, Pearls actually come in many
shapes. One of the biggest misconceptions is
that culturing guarantees rounds. It doesn't,
and most Pearls aren't round. Pearls are either
spherical (perfectly round or nearly round),
symmetrical (buttons, drops, ovals and pears
that are balanced and regular) or baroque
(abstract or irregular). Ultimately, the 'best'
shape is best left to personal preferences, but
please consider baroques, their artistic
irregularity often accentuates this most
artistic of gems. Unless deliberately part of
the design, suites of Pearls should always
match.
In her recent article 'Pearls in Politics',
published by Coloured Stone, Deborah Yonick
says, "Pearls stand alone, unique and unfettered
by excess, with a simple, no-nonsense approach
to dressing for success. Pearl jewellery affirms
that women are strong, independent and in
control. They project a balance of both power
and beauty", and I couldn't agree more, but
thanks to the 'Pearl King' you now don't have to
be a 'Pearl Queen' to afford them.
Akoya Pearls
Akoya Pearls (Pinctada Fucata Martensi) are
named after the Japanese word (akoya-gai) for
the saltwater Pearl oyster originally used by
Mikimoto. Today, pollution in its original
habitat has resulted in the Akoya Pearl also
being farmed in China, Tahiti and Vietnam. Akoya
Pearls typically grow for eight months to two
years and can be nucleated with up to five bead
implants, but two is most common. Usually two to
six millimetres in diameter, Akoya Pearls are
rarely over nine millimetres in size.
Approximately one out of five nucleated Akoya
oysters produce Pearls and only a tiny fraction
of these are of gem quality.
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Chinese Freshwater Pearls
It
doesn't matter whether you call it a clam or a
mussel, the freshwater Hyriopsis Cuingii
produces Pearls in a plethora of affordable
colours and shapes. When tissue nucleated, up to
50 Pearls can be produced from a single clam,
making them affordable. Typically baroque-shaped
because they are solid nacre, they are also very
luminous and colourful. Chinese Freshwater
Pearls can also be bead nucleated, producing
Pearls up to 14 millimetres in diameter.
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South Sea Pearls
South Sea Pearls (Pinctada Maxima) are farmed in
Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. This
oyster is noted for producing white, silver and
golden Pearls. South Sea Pearls typically grow
for two to six years and while they only accept
one nucleus at a time, they can be nucleated
several times and even returned to nature to
lend their genes to future generations. South
Sea Pearls are some of the largest Pearls and
while they are typically 10 to 16 millimetres in
diameter, they can grow up to 20 millimetres.
Due to its compatibility with Caucasian skin
tones, whites remain the most popular and
expensive.
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Tahitian Pearls
Named
for the tropical isle in French Polynesia,
Tahitian Pearls (Pinctada Margaritifera) are
arguably the most coveted of all Pearls, despite
only being introduced to Europeans in 1845. This
is primarily due to the dramatic contrast
between their grey, silver or black body colours
and their colourful orients. Tahitian Pearl
orients are typically blue, green, pink or
purple, their rarest and most valuable orients
being 'peacock' (green pink combo) and pure
purple. Green is the most common orient colour
in Tahitian Pearls and dark green is commonly
called 'fly wing'. A pink orient produces a
colour called 'eggplant' when combined with a
black body colour. Tahitian Pearls typically
grow for four to five years and while they only
accept one nucleus at a time, they can be
nucleated several times and even returned to
nature to lend their genes to future
generations. Typically eight to 16 millimetres
in diameter, Tahitian Pearls are some of the
largest Pearls. While Tahitian myths associate
this Pearl with a beautiful princess called Bora
Bora, it was Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon
III, who boosted Pearl's Western popularity.
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While Pearl oysters'
scientific name Pinctada distinguishes
them from edible oysters known as
Ostreidae, Roman historian Pliny the
Elder (23-79 AD) tells the story of how
Cleopatra put this to the test.
Competing with Marc Anthony to see who
could host the most lavish dinner party,
she trumped him by dissolving a Pearl
from her earrings in vinegar and downing
it. Movie myth has it that she crushed
it in a glass of wine. However the Pearl
was consumed, at the cost of 80,000 gold
pieces, she really did drink the 'wealth
of nations'. Now you've probably heard
this story before, along with the old
wives' tale about how you can rub the
surface of a Pearl over your teeth to
tell if it's fake (smooth) or real
(bumpy). Now, before you start sticking
your Pearls in your mouth, this is not a
reliable test. Sure the premise has some
validity, but for cultured Pearls this
no longer always rings true. A bespoke
jeweller once told me about a male
customer shopping for his wife, who
insisted on performing this test on a
selection of expensive Tahitian Pearls.
Undoubtedly the real McCoy, our jeweller
was a little apprehensive given their
value, but the customer is always right.
Reluctantly agreeing, he glanced away
for a second to answer the phone.
Turning back to continue the sale, the
red-faced customer admitted he'd
accidentally swallowed one! Now jokingly
referred to as 'pulling a Cleopatra', it
mightn't have cost him the 'wealth of
nations', but I would've loved to see
how he explained that credit card
statement to his wife! |
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