Gems TV

PEARL

Pearls are one of the oldest known gems and for centuries were considered the most valuable. So valuable if fact, that the Roman General Vitellius allegedly financed an entire military campaign with just one of his mother’s Pearl earrings!

Thankfully, the days of island inhabitants free diving into azure oceans to harvest Pearls are more or less over. The lust for uncultured Pearls once decimated entire species of molluscs, relegating this gem of the sea to the elite few. Today, thanks to the innovations of Japanese noodle maker, Kokichi Mikimoto (the man who perfected Pearl farming and who convinced the world to accept them), these fragile ecosystems are now safe, with natural uncultured Pearls usually appearing only as antiques.

Legends and lore

The Romans were particularly enamoured of this gem of the sea. Rome’s Pearl craze reached its zenith during the 1st century BC when upper class Roman women (the lower ranks were forbidden from wearing them) wore their Pearls to bed so they could be reminded of their wealth immediately upon awakening. They also sewed so many into their gowns that they actually walked on their Pearl-encrusted hems. The famously excessive Emperor Caligula, having made his beloved horse a Consul, decorated it with a Pearl necklace.

A lover of luxury, Julius Caesar, apart from his well known military accomplishments, was also an expert in Pearls and could reportedly accurately ascertain their value by simply weighing them in his hand.

Cleopatra flaunted her enormous wealth and power during a competition with Marc Anthony to see who could host the most lavish dinner party. She allegedly crushed a Pearl from one of her earrings into a glass of wine to demonstrate to Marc Anthony how she could drink the wealth of nations.

The first known source of Pearls was the Persian Gulf and the ancients of the area believed that Pearls were a symbol of the moon and had magical powers. Indeed, the oldest known Pearl jewellery is a necklace found in the sarcophagus of a Persian princess who died in 520 BC.

The earliest written record of their value is in the “Shu King”, a 23 BC Chinese book in which the scribe sniffs that a lesser king sent tribute of “strings of Pearls not quite round”. The Chinese also used Pearls in medicinal ways to cure eye ailments, heart trouble, indigestion, fever and bleeding. To this day Pearl powder is still popular in China as a skin whitener and cosmetic.

In India, Pearls were believed to give peace of mind and strengthen the body and soul.

In antiquity, it was thought that swallowing whole or powdered Pearls cured matters of the mind and heart, strengthened nerves and even improved virility.

The Koran states that a good Muslim, upon entering the Kingdom of Heaven, “is crowned with Pearls of incomparable lustre, and is attended by beautiful maidens resembling hidden Pearls”.

While Queen Isabella had to hock her impressive collection of jewellery to fund Christopher Columbus’ expedition to discover the New World, the investment paid off as the discovery of Pearls in Central American waters added to the wealth of Spain. The flood of American Pearls onto the European market earned the newly discovered continent the nickname “land of Pearls”. Unfortunately, greed and lust for these gems of the sea resulted in the depletion of virtually all the American Pearl oyster populations by the 17th century.

During the Dark Ages, while fair maidens of nobility cherished delicate Pearl necklaces, gallant knights often wore Pearls onto the battlefield. They believed that the magic possessed by the lustrous gems would protect them from harm.

Pearls have long been considered ideal wedding gifts because they symbolise purity and innocence. In the Hindu religion, the presentation of an un-drilled Pearl and its piercing has formed part of the marriage ceremony. In the West, Pearls are the recommended gift for couples celebrating their 3rd and 30th wedding anniversaries.

Just the facts

The Pearl begins life as a foreign body (a grain of sand, coral or parasite), which makes its way into the shell of a marine or freshwater mollusc – usually oysters or clams. The mollusc’s defence mechanism starts to coat the intruder with layers of a slightly iridescent substance, “nacre” (from the Arabic word for shell “naqqarah”), which is the attractive outside of the Pearl. In its natural environment this will, after many years, form a Pearl that is of a significant size and quality.

Unlike natural Pearls, cultivated Pearls do not begin as accidental intruders. First cultivated by the Chinese as early as the 12th Century, the process starts with “nucleation”. A cultivated Pearl usually begins its life when a spherical bead or a piece of mantle tissue is placed inside the mollusc. After this seeding process, the Pearl farmers place the molluscs in wire-mesh baskets and suspend them in water. These aquaculturists carefully tend to the molluscs, overseeing their development for 18 months to 5 years. The depth of the nacre coating, an important factor in determining the colour of Pearls, depends on how long the seeded Pearls are left in place before being harvested. Usually, only half of the Pearls will be marketable and less than 10% of these will be top-quality. While Pearls are classified as coloured gems, there is a unique appeal about them. Unlike other gemstones that are born of earth and fire, Pearls are waterborn organic gems that originate from living animals. They are also unique in the sense that the principals of the 4 C’s (colour, cut, clarity and carat weight) cannot be applied to them. The evaluation of Pearls requires a different set of criteria. A Pearl is appraised according to the display of colour, lustre, surface clarity, shape and size.

Pearl’s two colours

The body colours themselves can be white, cream, pink, rose, golden, silver, grey and black. As colour preference is subjective, there is no such thing as a bad body colour - it is purely a matter of choice. Apart from the obvious body colour, there is actually a second colour to consider when evaluating Pearls. This second colour is actually a result of subtle iridescence. While not instantly obvious, especially when similar to the body colour, this effect lends Pearls much of their allure. Typically, this iridescence is seen most strongly on the crest of a Pearl’s horizon. This beautiful, shimmering effect is known as the “orient” or overtone and denotes the depth of the nacre. Pearls with rich colourful orients are generally more coveted than those that have little or no orient.

Pearl lustre

Pearls are bright, reflective gemstones. While Pearls with clean and even surfaces reflect more light than Pearls with blemished surfaces, please remember that as a natural creation, like inclusions in mineral gems, most Pearls do have blemishes. Intelligent jewellers solve this problem by concealing blemishes near the drill holes.

Weight and size

As with other gemstones, value and size are intrinsically linked. The bigger the Pearl the more desirable it becomes. However, there is one important difference: Pearls are measured and expressed by their size, not weight (e.g. 8.5 millimetres).

Pearl locations

As with all things natural, Pearls can only grow in the right conditions. Different Pearl varieties from different locations command different prices. The best quality Pearls are found in the waters of French Polynesia, Japan and China. However, due to the different environments, mollusc species and farming techniques, all cultivated Pearls have their own distinctive qualities. The three main Pearl varieties on GemsTV are Freshwater Pearls, Tahitian Pearls and South Sea Pearls.

Freshwater Pearls

Although historically originating in Japan, China is now a major producer of Freshwater Pearls. Our Chinese Freshwater Pearls are farmed in the Fuchum, Wu and Ling Rivers of the Zhejiang province in southern China. China has successfully concentrated on Freshwater Pearls using not oysters but freshwater clams. The humble clam, while not as widely celebrated as its cousin the oyster, is equally capable of producing high-quality Pearls.

Tahitian Pearls

Tahitian Pearls are from French Polynesia and are named after the tropical island of Tahiti. Grown in the large black-lipped saltwater oyster (Pinctada Margaritifera), Tahitian Pearls are celebrated for their exceptional beauty. Tahiti’s pure tranquil waters are the ideal cultivation ground for this dramatic Pearl.

Tahitian legend says that Te Ufi (Pinctada Margaritifera) was given to man by Oro, the god of peace and fertility, who came to earth on a rainbow and offered the Pearl to the beautiful princess Bora Bora as a sign of eternal love.

First appearing in Europe in 1845, Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie was responsible for bringing Tahitian Pearls into fashion. After the fall of Napoleon, Empress Eugenie’s necklace was auctioned at Christies for US$20,000. “Ezra” was the most famous natural Tahitian Pearl, the centrepiece of a necklace that was part of the Russian crown jewels.

Tahitian Black Pearls are prized and admired throughout the world. The first Pearl farms were established on the atoll of Hikueru and the island of Bora Bora in the early 1960’s. Exports began in 1972 and production was subsequently expanded on the islands of Marutea Sud and Mangareva. Today, Tahitian Black Pearls are cultivated in Pearl farms in a sprawling group of atolls and islands in French Polynesia, primarily the lagoons of the Tuamotu-Gambier Archipelago.

Tahitian Pearls generally range in size from 8 millimetres to 16 millimetres and consist of many thousands of layers of Aragonite (a variety of calcium carbonate). In contrast to many other Pearl varieties, Tahitian Pearls are cultured for 4 - 5 years and have a nacre thickness of 3 - 10 millimetres.

Tahitian Pearls display a shimmering orient or overtone that is green, blue, pink or violet in colour. These orient colours are in striking contrast to their silver to black body colour and are sometimes given specific names (e.g. deep green is called “fly wing”, “peacock” for the combination of green and pink, and “eggplant” is a dark toned body colour combined with pink).

South Sea Pearls

Highly coveted, South Sea Pearls come from Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Cultured in varieties of Pinctada Maxima, this large, warm-water loving, gold and silver-lipped oyster produces Pearls of fabulous colours.